Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/269

218 some were as much as one-third of an inch in diameter. They were very beautiful, closely resembling a bell- or trumpet-mouthed monopetalous flower, with a short flexible footstalk, and a small, expanded, sucking disk at the base. The substance was clear, transparent, gelatinous; the flower-like expansion thin and filmy, with the margin projecting into eight equidistant points. From each of these points radiated about twenty slender tentacular threads, bearing at their extremities orange or yellow globules. The ovaries radiated in eight irregular bands from the centre of the flower to the marginal points, and from the centre itself projected a little, protrusile, four-cleft mouth; closely like the peduncle of a Thaumantias. Indeed I was strongly struck with the resemblance which the creature bore to a small Medusa, and I consider it as a link that connects the normal Actiniæ with the Acalephæ.

In some specimens there were eight little oval warts which hung from the outside of the margin, placed midway between the angles or points. Montagu has made these warts the distinctive character of this species; but I think they are not to be depended on; for many of my specimens, not at all to be distinguished from these in form, colour or habit, were destitute of the least trace of the warts. It is possible that it may be a distinction of sex.

The specimens were very difficult to preserve alive. The beautiful groups of globe-headed threads soon contracted and agglutinated into shapeless masses, the hold of the foot loosened, and the animal dropped helpless to the bottom, and decayed. Indeed, I found that