Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/134

Rh a short description and a figure taken from this latter specimen. The specimen which I have found is evidently identical with this, though there are some differences in the form.

When extended, it stands about rd of an inch in height, shaped like a goblet, with an oval body, somewhat flattened, being broad in one aspect, and thin in another at right angles to it. This is perpendicularly corrugated, so as to form four irregular lobes. Above the body there is a decided neck or constriction, not indicated in Dr. Johnston's figure, above which the tentacular disk expands much like the mouth of a phial. Below, the body is supported by a corrugated footstalk, capable of considerable extension and contraction, terminating in a flat, dilated, sucking disk.

Viewed from above, the tentacular disk is seen to be a pellucid gelatinous membrane, of a form indistinctly stellar, with eight points. The spaces between the points are furnished with tentacula, about twelve in each space, which are short, rather crowded, and set in three rows, a little overarching the margin. Those in the middle of the interspace are the longest, and the length diminishes on each side: the points themselves are destitute of tentacles. The tentacles are composed of a thick cylindrical stem, which has a central opaque core; and a globular white head, which under a power of 200 diameters, showed neither hairs nor ciliary action, but appeared viscous. The tentacles originate without the margin of the disk, for the edge of the latter is distinctly traced within their bases.

The delicate transparent disk is shallowly