196 THE OCEAN WOULD. 



filaments have sacs and canals containing fluids at their roots. Suckers 

 are also found at the extremities, and along the sides of these tentacles 

 in several genera are suckers, by which they are able more securely to 

 catch their floating prey, or to anchor themselves when at rest. The 

 indications of nerves or nervous system are too slight to be received as 

 evidence, although Dr. Grant observed some structure which he thought 

 could only belong to a nervous system, and Ehrenberg thought he ob- 

 served eyes in Medusa aurita, as well as a nervous circle formed of four 

 ganglion-like masses disposed round the mouth. But most naturalists 

 seem to be of opinion that touch is the only sense of which any con- 

 clusive proof can be advanced. 



Here we behold a class of bell-shaped semi-transparent organisms? 

 which float gracefully in the sea a great family of soft, wandering 

 animals, constituted in a most extraordinary manner. They look like 

 floating umbrellas, breeches, or, better still, floating mushrooms, the 

 footstalk replaced by an equally central body, but divided into diver- 

 gent lobes at once sinuous, twisted, and fringed, so that one is at first 

 tempted to take them for a species of root. The edges of the umbrella 

 or mushroom are entire or dentate, sometimes elegantly figured, often 

 ciliate, or provided with long filiform appendages which float vertically 

 in the water. 



Sometimes the animal is uncoloured, and limpid as crystal ; some- 

 times it presents a slightly opaline appearance, now of a tender blue, 

 or of a delicate rose colour; at other times it reflects the most brilliant 

 and vivid tints. 



In certain species the central parts only are coloured, showing 

 brilliant reds and yellows, blues or violets, the rest being colourless. 

 In others the central mass seems clothed in a thin iridescent or 

 diaphanous veil, like the light evanescent soap-bubble, or the trans- 

 parent glass shade which covers a group of artificial flowers. 



The Acalephae are animals without consistence, imbued with much 

 water, so that we can scarcely comprehend how they resist the agita- 

 tion of the waves and the force of the currents ; the waves, however, 

 float without hurting them, the tempest scatters without killing them. 

 When the sea retires, or they are withdrawn from their native waters, 

 their substance dissolves, the animal is decomposed, they are reduced 

 to nothing ; if the sun is ardent, this disorganisation occurs in the 

 twinkling of an eye, so to speak. 



