AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. 177 



vonr to place our readers in a position to observe 

 some of them. 



From the preceding remarks we may conclude that 

 the relation of polyps to acalephs is far more intimate 

 than it was thought to be fifteen or twenty years ago. 

 The most recent researches tend still more to break 

 down the formerly established distinction between the 

 two classes. For example : — 



Among the strange creatures which inhabit the 

 ocean, may be mentioned the name of Stephanomia. 

 This is actually a living garland of animals; it has 

 flowers like the most lovely enamel, and filaments like 

 crystal, which are attached to a transparent stem, 

 surmounting a vesicle filled with air, that plays the 

 part of afloat. This strange being maybe regarded 

 as the type of Cuvier's group of Hydrostatic acalephs, 

 a group which was afterwards styled Siphonophora by 

 the German naturalist Bscholtz. Zoologists were for 

 a long while in a state of doubt regarding the nature 

 of these beings. Vogt* and Leuckart,f who were led 

 back by a careful investigation to the views of the dis- 

 tinguished naturalist traveller Lesueur, put forward the 

 view that they were compound polyps ; and this idea 

 has been fully confirmed by the writings of Huxley, J 



* " Ocean und Midlmeer," 1848. 



f " Memo-ire sur la Structure des Physalies et des Siphonophores 

 en general," 1851, also in the "Annates cles Sciences naturelles," 

 1852. This — Leuckart's first memoir — related to animals which 

 had been preserved in spirit. He has since completed and extended 

 Ms researches in a new memoir, which forms part of his " Zoolc- 

 gische Untersuchungeii," 1853. 



X " On the Structure of the Acalepha?." — Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, 1851. 



N 



