THE OCEAN WOELD. 



258 



In Cesium, or Yenus's Girdle, as it is vulgarly called, we have a 

 long, gelatinous, ribbon- like body, fine, regular, and very short, but 

 much extended on each side, while the edges are furnished with a 

 double row of cilia ; the lower surface is also furnished with cilia, but 

 much smaller in size and number. On the middle of the lower edge 

 is the mouth, opening into a large stomach. This alimentary canal 

 runs across the middle of its length, and from it extends, as in the 

 Medusae, a series of gastric canals, which carry the nutriment into all 



Fig. 104. Cesium veneris (Lesueur). 



parts of the body. There are many species of Cestum ; among them 

 the best known is C. veneris (Fig. 104), which is found in the Medi- 

 terranean, particularly in the sea which bathes the coast of Naples 

 and Nice, where the fishermen call it the sabre de mer sea-sabre. 

 This curious zoophyte unwinds itself on the bosom of the waters, like 

 a scarf of iridescent shades. It is the scarf of Venus traversing the 

 waves, under the fiery rays of the sun, which has coloured it with a 

 thousand reflections of silver and azure blue. 



