ACALEPH.E. 241 



parent, some hundreds of bodies, sometimes elongated, sometimes flat, 

 and formed like the bud of a flower. If we add to this garland of pearls 

 of a vivid red colour, an infinity of fine filaments, varying in thickness, 

 and give life and motion to all these parts, we have even now only 

 a very slight and imperfect idea of the marvellous organism." The 



Fig. 98. Apolemia contorta, one-third natural size (Milne Edwards). 



air-bells in Apolemia contorta consist of a mass having the form 

 of an elongated egg cut in the middle. They are arranged in a 

 vertical series of twelves, and the axis which supports them is termi- 

 nated by the aerial vesicle. This axis is always arranged in a spiral 

 form, even in its greatest expansion, is of a fine rose tint, and flattened 

 into the form of a ribbon ; it is marked in all its length with asperities 

 or hollow dimples, in which the filamental appendages originate. 



