SEA-BLUBBERS. 



77 



others which no single or compound term can express,— 

 are the very counterparts of those of the sea-blubbers, 

 They, too, look as if they were blown in glass ; the perfect 

 transparency of some, and the dimly pellucid, and as it 

 were granulated, texture of others, accurately represents 

 the polished or ground condition of that substance ; while 

 in some species (as in the genus JEquorea, for example) 

 we find both conditions, arranged in alternate longitudinal 

 bands, exactly as we have seen stripes of clear and ground 

 glass in some lamps at the west end. And further, as we 

 occasionally see these shades made of stained glass, 

 and arrayed in colours whose brilliancy is heightened by 

 the translucency of the material ; so, while most of the 

 animals of which we speak are devoid of positive colour, 

 there are a few which add a gay hue to a hyaline clear- 

 ness. 



^ Among the forms which find their true affinities among 

 the Sea- Anemones, there is a genus named Lucernaria, 

 which departs very considerably from the ordinary 

 appearance of its fellows. Tt is a gelatinous animal, of 

 the shape of a vase, cup, or trumpet, affixed to the stems 

 of sea-weeds by a narrow foot, but so slightly as to be de- 

 tached on the least disturbance. The margin of the cup 

 bears at certain symmetrical points clusters of slender 

 tentacles, and a little mobile protrusile proboscis stands 

 up in the bottom of the vase-like cavity. All these par- 

 ticulars indicate this dslicate animal as the connecting 

 link between the Actiniae and the Medusae. 



The most ordinary form assumed by a Medusa is that 

 of an umbrella or a mushroom, of greater or less thickness, 

 composed of a tender jelly of so little consistence that 



