SEA-BLUBBEKS. 
77 
others which no single or compound term can express, — 
are the very counterparts of those of tho 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 Lvcernaria, 
which departs very considerably from the ordinary 
appearance of its fellows. It 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 delicate 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 
