SECT. nr. PHYSALIID^E. 1 1 3 



less tentacles of various lengths, and sterile polypites in 

 different stages of development. In some individuals 

 the tentacles are nine or ten feet long, of a deep blue 

 colour at their origin, and formed of two distinct parts, 

 which have a common base. One is a long conical bag, 

 formed by an extension of the under-surface of the body 

 lined with cilia, and ending in a pointed apex full of 

 stinging thread-cells. It is flat on one side, attached 

 throughout its length to the tentacle, and is supposed 

 to furnish poison for the stings. The tentacle itself is 

 a closed tube whose canal communicates with the cavity 

 of the long sac, and consequently with that in the ani- 

 mal's body. The interior of the tentacle is ciliated, its 

 upper part is gathered into folds ; and the rest, which 

 hangs straight down, is like a delicate narrow ribbon, 

 highly contractile from muscular fibres, of which the 

 most conspicuous are longitudinal. The tentacle is 

 marked at regular intervals by blue kidney-shaped 

 masses, containing myriads of powerful thread-cells, in 

 which the threads of the darts are coiled in a spiral, 

 and contain muscular fibres, that serve to contract and 

 extend them. The smaller tentacles vary as much in 

 length as the large ones; they are of similar struc- 

 ture, but of a paler colour, and are indiscriminately 

 mixed with the other appendages. 



The polypites, which are direct processes from the 

 under-surface of the body, are crowded in groups of 

 various sizes round the base of the large tentacles and 

 mixed with the small ; they are of a deep blue at their 

 base, frequently of a bright yellow at their extremities, 

 and on an average about three-fourths of an inch long. 

 They are as irritable and contractile as the tentacles, 

 and are in constant motion. Their mouth is large, with 

 an everted lip armed with thread-cells ; it sucks in the 

 prey caught and brought to it by the contraction of the 



VOL. II. I 



