BEROE. 



165 



name of Jelly-fish. These are strange creatures, 

 of wondrously low organization, that thickly 

 populate the ocean, and are anything but shape- 

 less when living and in health. Scientifically 

 they are called Acalephce, from a Greek word 

 signifying a nettle, because many of the species 

 have the power of stinging the hand that incau- 

 tiously touches them. 



Sometimes they lie on the shore in vast num- 

 bers ; and there is a story on one of our coasts, 

 that a farmer ordered down his carts to the sea, 

 and carried away several cartloads of jelly-fish to 

 serve as manure for his fields j but by the next 

 morning the heaps of jelly-fish had disappeared, 

 leaving behind them a few lumps of membranous 

 threads. In fact, all the real animal matter that 

 the carts had carried to the fields might have 

 been conveyed in the farmer's own hand, for 

 jelly-fish are really little but animated sea- water. 



On plate n. fig. 2, will be seen a singularly 

 shaped creature, bearing two long threads covered 

 with spiral tendrils; this is one of the jelly-fishes, 

 called by the name of Beroe or Cydippe, and a 

 wonderful creature it is. If on a calm day a 

 gauze net is passed gently through the water, 

 there will often be found adhering to its sides 

 sundry little gelatinous knobs, perfectly trans- 



