THE LOWER FORMS OF LIFE. 87 



ridge-like back terminating in a point, which is movable at the 

 will of the creature, with a fringe round the part in contact with 

 the water, and a number of long blue tentacula, extending some- 

 times ten or twelve feet into the water ; the beak end of the back a 

 rich carmine, and the rest blue, while the sides and fringe are 

 iridescent with yellow and green and blue, glittering in the warm 

 tropical sun, and gilding this fairy of the sea with the rich colour- 

 ing and harmonised tints which mark a thing of beauty. Such is 

 the "Portuguese man-of-war," or "galley," or "frigate," which 

 sometimes in countless thousands floats along at the mercy of the 

 currents or the winds of the warm seas of the tropics. 



Monsignor Virtue, E.G., Chaplain to the Forces, and now stationed 

 in Colchester, informs me that this Zoophyte is very common on 

 the shores of the islands of Bermuda, where, like the Medusae 

 on our own coast, it is thrown helpless by the receding tide. 

 He says that he never saw there any of the yellow or green tints 

 which are described and figured in the second volume of the Intel- 

 lectual Observer, p. 233, by Mr. Noel Humphreys, from a British 

 specimen ; that the principal colourings are the amaranth crest, and 

 the deep blue of the rest of the ridge and sides relieved by white. 

 He also says that he never saw any specimen there having the 

 number of tentacles figured by Mr. Humphreys, and that the full- 

 grown size is considerably larger than a goose's egg, as stated by 

 me on the authority of Dutertre in his description of the Antilles. 



Mr. Bennett, in his " Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australia," 

 where he gives a most interesting account of the Physaliae, states 

 the size of a full-grown specimen to be 5in. long, and the tentacula 

 from 4ft. to 5ft., with the power of much greater extension. Mr. 

 Humphreys does not give the dimensions of the specimens figured 

 in the Intellectual Observer, nor does he say whether the figure, which 

 is 37-10thin. by 1-Jin., is the natural size or not an omission much 

 to be regretted. The discrepancy, however, in size and colour in the 

 description of this Zoophyte arises not only from the fact that they 

 differ in both according to age, but that in the opinion of some 

 naturalists they are divisible into several species. M. Eschscholtz 

 describes three species of Physalia : 



1. P. Oaravella, which is 8in. by 2 Jin. of bright purplish red 

 colour, with dark extremities and blue lines in the fold of the crest, 

 Tentacles red, with dark purple acetubula ; the smaller ones blue. 

 Hab., Atlantic, from Azores to Brazil. 



2. P. Pelagica. 2 Jin. long; when young, pale blue. In the 

 adult both ends are green, and the crest purple in its highest part ; 

 tentacles blue, with dark acetubula. Hab,, Atlantic, especially near 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



