MEDUSAE THEIR PROPERTY OF STINGING. 57 



highly organized than themselves, voraciously ; appa- 

 rently " enjoying the destruction of the unfortunate 

 members of the upper classes with a truly democratic 

 relish;" nay, some of them will even attack and 

 proceed to swallow other Medusae, in all respects quite 

 as good as themselves. Yet are these ferocious crea- 

 tures among the most delicate and graceful of the 

 inhabitants of the ocean, " very models of tender- 

 ness and elegance." 



A very prominent feature in these animals, and 

 that, indeed, from which, in almost all languages, 

 they derive their popular designation, is their power 

 of nettling or stinging the hands of the incautious 

 experimentalist who may presume to lay hold of them, 

 and that sometimes in a manner which fully entitles 

 them to the names " Stingers " or " Stangers " above 

 alluded to, or to the more refined epithets of Sea- 

 nettles, Orties de mer, Urtici marini, &c., whereby 

 they are distinguished in different countries; even 

 the word ACALEPH^E, by which, zoologically, the whole 

 class is designated, has a similar signification. It is 

 probable, however, that this offensive faculty of sting- 

 ing is possessed by only a small minority of the sea- 

 jellies. "Among them, the Cyanea capillata (PL I. 

 figs. 11 & 12) of our seas is a most formidable 

 creature, and the terror of tender-skinned bathers. 

 With its broad, tawny, festooned and scalloped disc, 

 often a full foot, or even more, across, it flaps its way 

 through the yielding waters, and drags after it a long 

 train of riband-like arms, and seemingly interminable 

 tails, marking its course when the creature is far away 

 from us. Once tangled in its trailing hair, the unfor- 



D5 



