88 POPULAR ILLUSTRATIONS OF 



3. P. Utriculus. Length, 3 Jin. ; colour of the crest and middle 

 part of the bladder, greenish; the two extremities blue. Hab., 

 tropical region of Pacific. 



Professor Huxley, who follows Eschscholtz in this division, 

 expresses doubts whether these species are distinct or not ; and he 

 feelingly exclaims that the study of the species-making efforts of 

 Von Olfers, Lesson, and Lamarck had only one result that of pro- 

 ducing a somewhat unpleasant vertigo. Mr. Bennett has given us 

 the best account of the Physalis, for he had opportunities of 

 examining any number of them on the Australian coasts, whereon 

 they were cast after storms. I will give a brief resume of his 

 description. 



The bladder (a, Fig. Ill, p. 90) is about five inches long in adult 

 specimens, and the dependent tentacula (b) are several feet in length, 

 but capable of being extended much farther to seize any victim 

 which may be within reach thereof. The bladder is tough, slightly 

 elastic, and semi-transparent. Its lower part is of a light blue 

 colour, streaked or veined almost imperceptibly with delicate green 

 pencillings, the crest and beak being of a rich carmine, changing in 

 different lights to a brown, green, or purple. These colours soon 

 fade when out of the water, except the tentacles, which retain their 

 rich purple colour for a considerable time. Mr. Bennett says the 

 creature has no power of guiding its bladder-like float, but is at the 

 mercy of wind and tide, and that it cannot collapse or distend its 

 bladder by the exclusion or admission of air. The long tentacles 

 appear like a connected series of globules containing fluid, having a 

 sucker at the free end, which they can fix tightly on their prey, 

 benumbing it at the same time. This is not, however, done by the 

 exudation of a glutinous substance, as described by Mr. Bennett, but 

 by the agency of a vast number of thread cells, from l-50th to 

 1-3 00th of an inch in diameter, which send out threads, as already 

 described by the Hydra (Figs. 115 and 116, p. 91). The Physalis has 

 the power with these threads of inflicting great pain on the human 

 hand, round which they will entwine themselves if carelessly taken 

 hold of, as M. Dute"rtre tells us he did in one instance to his cost, 

 the pain produced causing him to call out most lustily. Mr. Bennett 

 also, with true scientific zeal, purposely exposed himself to one of 

 their unfriendly squeezes. He seized hold of the bladder, and 

 immediately the creature lifted up its tentacles and wound them 

 round his hand and fingers, giving him no little pain and some 

 difficulty in getting rid of their embraces. He says the violent 

 stinging continued so long as the smallest particle of tentacle 

 remained attached to his hand. There were also constitutional dis- 

 turbances afterwards, such as quick pulse, fever, impeded action of 



