236 Physalia Pelagica. 



medium of the beautiful Californian flower which was named 

 after him, Eschscholtzia Californica), published a most interest- 

 ing methodical memoir upon the Acalephse, which he termed 

 System cler Ahalephen, which still forms the basis of more recent 

 systems, and has been followed in the main by Blainville, by 

 Brandt, and also by M. Lesson, to whose work, as the latest, 

 I shall refer again, for the most recent scientific information 

 on the subject. 



The first really characteristic representation of Physalia 

 pelagica was that published by Mr. Bennett, as recently as 

 1834, in his charming Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australia. 

 This figure is, however, in some respects not thoroughly 

 accurate, according to the specimen I have so recently seen, 

 and from which the drawing at the head of this essay was most 

 carefully made. 



Mr. Bennett, like a truly enthusiastic naturalist, commences 

 the account of his own experiences in connection with the 

 Physalia pelagica, with a few hints on the general richness of 

 the shores of Australia in every form of marine life. Harvey, 

 he tells us, has described above six hundred species of sea-weed, 

 and the total number of the Australian Algee is estimated at 

 over one thousand. Innumerable forms of zoophytic life, we 

 are informed, exist on those shores which are still unknown, or 

 very imperfectly described, and there are vast numbers of 

 beautiful molluscs belonging to the genera Doris, Tritonia,. 

 Eolis, and other genera. Many of the creatures belonging to 

 these divisions of natural history, and which are truly resplendent 

 in their iridescent colours, are found in almost endless variety 

 on the vast shores of Australia ; and at Port Jackson, and in the 

 neighbouring bays, it appears that the beautiful Physalia pela- 

 gica, or Portuguese man-of-war is frequently found in the 

 greatest profusion ; the coast, after a storm, being strewed with 

 heaps of these stranded zoophytes. The inflated oblong bladder, 

 which forms the apparent body of this creature, glows, as Mr. 

 Bennett expresses it, " in delicate crimson tints, as it floats upon 

 the waves." But it is not only with crimson tints that it glows, 

 there are veinings of rich purple and opaline flashes of azure, 

 orange, and green, changing in position at every movement, and 

 its long dependent tresses, or rather tentacles, are of the deepest 

 purple, the rich tone of which is seen even beneath the water. 

 In Mr. Bennett's account we are further informed that the 

 bladder or body in a full grown specimen of ordinary size 

 measures about five inches the longest way, and the long de- 

 pendent tentaculae are from four to five feet in length, and 

 capable of being extended much farther when shot out for the 

 capture of prey. The bladder is tough, slightly elastic, and 

 semi-transparent. It is rather pointed at one end, which has 



