130 



THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



members separate and float about on the surface, when in 

 course of time they most likely, like the polype, reproduce a 

 new commonwealth. 



In the Physalus, or Portuguese man-of-war, the organ of 

 locomotion is a large air-filled vesicle or bladder, which for 

 the most part rises above the surface of the water, displaying 

 every shade of purple and azure. Numberless short sucking- 

 tubes and long tentacles hang in beautifully blue and violet 



Physalus utriculus. 



coloured locks or streamers from the lower surface of the body. 

 The tentacles can at pleasure be rolled together or extended 

 to the length of many feet, and woe to the unlucky fish or 

 cephalopod that comes within their reach, for, embracing the 

 doomed creature with the rapidity of lightning, they paralyse 

 all resistance by means of the venomous secretion of their urti- 

 cating organs. 



In the Velella, locomotion is effected partly by the move- 

 ments of the numerous tentacles which hang down from the 

 inferior surface, but chiefly, perhaps,, by the action of the 



