66 SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES. 



shore lifeless and tentacleless, deformed and decay- 

 ing, it cannot but present a more or less repulsive 

 appearance, and it. is little wonder that, from what 

 is generally their first experience, most people want 

 to have little to do with jelly-fishes. In the case 

 of the Cyanea this aversion has much in its favor, 

 since the animal is a powerful stinger, and can in- 

 flict injury that few would like to have repeated. 



The Oyanea arciiea, which is the largest form of 

 jelly-fish known, is one of the commonest of tjie 

 Atlantic coast species, and some of its ill-shaped 

 pads can at almost all times be found upon tjie 

 shore. About equally common is the ' sun-jelly,' 

 or Aurelia (PI. 4, Fig. 1), whose disk, however, 

 rarely measures more than fifteen inches across. 

 Both species are the product of tiny attached hy- 

 droids measuring less than an inch in length. 



Among the rarer species of jelly-fish occurring 

 on the 'Sew Jersey coast is the Portuguese-Man- 

 of-War (Physalia), which is wafted thither from 

 the southern waters on the current of the Gulf 

 Stream. In this species of remarkable form and 

 exquisite coloring we have a compound colony of 

 free-swimming hydroids and attached medusae, all 

 united, as it were, under a single roof — the large 

 swimming bell or float. Equally rare are the 

 closely-related Velella (PI. 4, Fig. 9) and Porpita, 

 although the disks of the latter, particularly in the 

 southern parts of the State, have been thrown up 

 by hundreds as the result of a single storm. A 

 small round jelly-fish, of much the size and appear- 



