PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 
27 
shores of Key West, Florida, our hands have been severely 
stung by them, the burning, smarting pain lasting for hours. 
A Siphonophore, such as Phy- 
salia, for example, may be com- 
pared to a colony of Hydrac- 
tinia, in which there are nutritive 
and reproductive zooids and me- 
dusa buds. In Physalia, how- 
ever, there are four kinds of 
zooids — i,e,, (1) locomotive, and 
(2) reproductive, with (3) barren 
medusa buds, which are called 
the swimming bells," and (4) 
the nutritive zooids or '^feeders," 
a set of digestive tubes which 
nourish the entire floating col- 
ony. 
The Portuguese man-of-war 
consists of long locomotive ten- 
tacles, which, when the animal 
is driven by its broad sail or 
float before the wind, stretch out 
in large individuals from thirty 
to fifty feet. These large Hydra- 
like zooids are arranged in small 
groups, arising from a hollow 
stem communicating with the 
stomach extending between the 
inner and outer wall of the float. Fig. ^S.—Physalia, or Portuguese 
The feeders" are of two kinds, «^an-of-war. Natural size. 
large and small, and are clustered in branches growing 
from a common hollow stem, also communicating with the 
stomach. 
Class 11. — Actinozoa {Sea-Anemones and Coral Polyps). 
General Characters of Actinozoans. — The Actinia or sea- 
anemone is the type of this class, the different kinds of 
