JELLY-FISHES 



These little gemmules have a somewhat romantic his- 

 tory of their own. I am afraid that these we see are too 

 recent to afford us any help in tracing it, and therefore I 

 must be satisfied with telling you what I have observed 

 of it on former occasions. 



After the beautiful little Coral Jelly has swum about 

 a few days, the umbrella begins to turn outward and back- 

 ward, and to contract more and more, until at length it 

 lies in shrivelled folds around the top, leaving the whole 

 peduncle exposed. Long before this, it has lost its power 

 of swimming, and lies helpless on its side upon the bot- 

 tom. Meanwhile the orange ovaries have swollen; the 

 purple gemmules have become developed, and have grad- 

 ually worked their way through the ovaries, and fallen 

 one by one upon the bottom. There then they glide 

 about for a little time, perhaps for a day or so, by means ' 

 of their vibrating cilia. 



At length each little gemmule loses its power of wan- 

 dering, its motion becomes feebler, and more intermitted, 

 and finally ceases altogether. The little being now rests 

 on some solid body a stone or a shell to which it firmly 

 adheres. Its two extremities grow out, adhering as they 

 extend, and sometimes branching, but still in close and 

 entire contact with the support. At length, after a day 

 or two, from some point of the upper surface of this creep- 

 ing root, a kind of wart buds forth, and soon grows into 

 an erect slender stem, which presently divides into four 

 straight, slender, slightly divergent tentacles, which grow 

 straight upward to a considerable length. The whole 

 structure retains the rich purple hue of the original gem- 

 mule. 



Beyond this point I have not pursued the history of the 



