112 HALF AN HOUR WITH JELLY-FISH. 



dark ocellus, or rudimentary eye-spot. The contraction 

 is caused by four bands of fleshy tissue, some of 

 which radiate from the centre of the bell to the 

 margin, where they are joined by marginal bands. 



Along the Devon coasts there occur other kinds 

 of jelly-fish, seldom or never met with elsewhere in 

 British waters. Among these is JEquorea Forbesiana 

 named after the distinguished naturalist, Pro- 

 fessor Edward Forbes, whose work on the Medusoids 

 is still a text-book. This species is about four 

 inches in diameter, and an inch and a half thick, 

 having thirty-six threadlike tentacles pendent from 

 it. It is not so round or convex as the Sarsia. 

 Like the latter, the polypite has four large lips, of a 

 three-cornered shape, each of which is fringed along 

 the margin. The tentacles are covered with peculiar 

 little knobs, or swellings, capable of adhering to 

 objects they may happen to touch. Like the ten- 

 tacles of the larger jelly-fish, they possess the power 

 of urtication, or nettling. Two species of this 

 genus occur as far north as Ilfracombe. Their 

 appearance is glassy above and sky-blue beneath, 

 the radiating vessels and the lips of the polypite 

 being of a rose-colour. Altogether it is a most 

 beautiful object, and one not likely to be soon 

 forgotten after it has been once identified. 



Whilst speaking of these Devonshire species, we 

 may as well mention others to be met with oc- 

 casionally in the same waters, although they seem 

 to be drifted thither by the Gulf Stream. These 



