A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 53 



beautiful object stranded, just low enough to 

 be washed over by the waves. Long ribbon- 

 like streamers and fringes, purple and rosy 

 pink, floated out for yards beyond its richly 

 colored body. Dr. McLean explained that 

 the Portuguese man-of-war was a jellyfish be- 

 longing to the class AcelephcB, which means 

 nettles, many members of this class possessing 

 a stinging po^-er which makes the name appro- 

 priate. " Tom," he continued, " those beautiful 

 threadlike filaments, which at a glance you took 

 for seaweeds, are filled with little cells, and each 

 cell is a tiny armory where its death-dealing 

 weapon is kept. If you had touched but one 

 of those beautifully fringed appendages, even 

 very softly, every little cell thus touched would 

 have burst open, thrusting its poison-charged 

 weapon into your flesh. 



" These poison-filled tentacles are its weapons 

 of defense and are also used in obtaining its 

 food. The sea animal wounded by a sting from 

 these lasso cells soon dies and is devoured by 

 this singular creature. 



" The home of the Portuguese man-of-war is 

 in the tropics, and only occasionally does one 

 drift so far into the colder currents. Another 

 day we vpill return and see how mxich is left of 

 this gay privateer. 



