ACALEPHA. 



397 



PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR (Physalis Pelagica). 



upper part into a kind of rumpled edge ; this edge 

 is of a delicate pink, but the lower part of the 

 bladder is fine blue, and both these colours are 

 gradually softened into the clear membrane, the 

 middle of which is colourless. From one end of 

 the bottom proceeds a large bunch of tentacles, like 

 strings, hanging down in the water ; these are of 

 a brilliant purple. The vividness of the colours 

 varies much, some being only of a pure white above ; 

 they differ much also in beauty of form : in some, 

 the sail is merely a narrow ridge or border, in others 

 it rises into a tall and wide semicircular membrane. 

 The hanging tentacles have, in a very formidable 



