238 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
they are conical tubes, closed on all parts except at the point whei® 
the tentacle is attached to the disk. Their cavity is filled with the 
granulous liquid already mentioned. On the under surface oi th e 
disk, and to the inside of these tentacles, the polypes arid fishing 
lines are attached. 
The anterior part of the polype is formed of a glass-like substance 
which changes its form in the most varied and surprising manner, 
hears a roundish mouth at its summit. In its posterior part the 
polype presents a straight hollow stem, of reddish colour ; hut near t° 
Fig. 96. P. bydrostatica, with a portion of the disk, three polypes, and reproductive clusters attach^' 
this red stem we find a thick tuft of cylindrical appendages, from th e 
middle of which springs the extensible and contractile filaments wm 6 
Vogt calls the fishing-lines (fil pochcur), and of which he has g lVl11 
the following very strange account : , 
“ Each of these appendages consists of an assemblage of cylindn ® 1 
tubes somewhat resembling and analogous to a filament of confer? " 
All these tubes are traversed by a continuous canal, which origin 11 e ^ 
in the internal cavity of the stem of the polype. Each fragment 
the line is capable of a prodigious extent of elongation and contra 
tion, but where completely drawn back the pieces fold themselves fl ! 
