Fig. 99. Fig. 100.
Apolemia contorta,Apolemia contorta,
magnified 12 times. reproductive pair,
magnified 12 times.
Between the nursing polyps are placed in pairs the reproductive individuals, having the form of an elongated tube very dilatable, and closed at the free end. They have, then, no mouth! Milne Edwards calls these "vesicular appendages," and M. Kœlliker, tentacles. The buds arranged at the base of each prolific individual vary; but, according to M. Vogt, they are always there in pairs—a male and female at the base of each stem. Figs. 99 and 100 represent the colony we have endeavoured to describe, 99 being the nursing individual of Apolemia contorta magnified twelve times, 100 representing the reproductive pair under the same magnifying power.
The Diphydæ.
We have seen that the Physophora, the Agalma, and the Apolemia have for the use of the colony a vast number of swimming vesicles and a terminal aërial vesicle. It is much the same in the Prayæ or Diphydæ. In this family a great number of natatory vesicles are connected with the terminal aërial vesicle, as in Fig. 101, Praya diphys. This species is widely diffused in the sea which bathes the Nicean coast, but it is very difficult to procure perfect specimens. M. Vogt found fragments more than three feet long which swam on the surface, and was in its state of contraction not more than a finger's length. This species has been met with at Porta della Praya and at San Yago, one of the Cape de Verde islands.
Fig. 101. Praya diphys (Blainville).
The colony of the Praya presents two great locomotive bell shaped masses, between which the common trunk is suspended, and to which it can retire. This cylindrical trunk, which is thin and transparent, carries from space to space certain groups very exactly circumscribed and individualised. Each of these groups consists of a nursing polyp, having its fishing-line with a special floating air-bladder, a reproductive bud male or female, and a protecting casque enveloping the whole.
Another species having a great resemblance to the Praya is Galeolaria aurantiaca (Plate VIII.), or orange Galeolaria, which is represented on the opposite page, borrowed from the fine "Memoir of the Inferior Animals of the Mediterranean," by Carl Vogt. Here we find only two great floating bladders placed at each extremity of a common trunk, and serving the purpose of a locomotive apparatus to the whole colony. This trunk carries in like manner polyps placed at regular intervals forming isolated groups, provided each with its protecting plates. But there is no special swimming apparatus for each of these groups. Moreover, each colony is either male or female.
Physalia.
Let us finally note among the Siphonophoræ a zoophyte which has attracted great attention, and has been described under many names. Sailors call it the sea-bladder, from its resemblance to that organ; it is also known as the Portuguese man-of-war, from its fancied resemblance to a small ship as it floats along under its tiny sail. Naturalists after Eschscholtz call it Physalia utriculus, from the Greek word φυσαλὶϛ, a bubble, and utriculus from its stinging powers. It was long thought that the Physalia was an isolated individual. But, according to recent researches, they form, like the species already described, an animal republic.