2G0 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
Cestidje. 
In Cestmi, or "Venus’s Girdle, as it is vulgarly culled, we have a 
long, gelatinous, ribbon-like body, fine, regular, and very short, hut 
much extended on each side, while the edges are furnished with & 
double row of cilia ; the lower surface is also furnished with oils, but 
much smaller in size and number. On the middle of the lower edge 
is the mouth, opening into a large stomach. This alimentary canal 
runs across the middle of its length, and from it extends, as in the 
Medusae, a series of gastric canals, which carry the nutriment into all 
Fig. 104. Cestura veneris (Lesueur). 
parts of the body. I here are many species of Cesturn ; among then 1 
the best known is G. veneris (Fig. 104), which is found in the Med 1 ' 
terranean, particularly in the sea which bathes the coasts of Napl eS 
and Nice, where the fishermen call it the sea-sabre — sabre devi^- 
This curious zoophyte unwinds itself on the bosom of the waters, ld vt 
a scarf of iridescent shades. It is the scarf of Yenus traversing th e 
waves, under the fiery rays of the sun, which has coloured it with a 
thousand reflections of silver and azure blue. 
