The Sea and Its Living Wonders A Popular Account of the Marvels of the Deep and of the Progress of Martime Discovery from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time

CHAPTER XVII.

Chapter 1773 wordsPublic domain

CŒLENTERATA.

POLYPS AND JELLY-FISHES.

Thread-cells or Urticating Organs.--Sertulariæ.--Campanulariadæ.-- Hydrozoic Acalephæ.--Medusidæ.--Lucernariadæ.--Calycophoridæ.-- The Velella.--The Portuguese Man-of-war.--Anecdote of a Prussian Sailor.--Alternating Fixed and Free-swimming Generations of Hydrozoa.--Actinozoa.--Ctenophora.--Their Beautiful Construction. --Sea-anemones.--Dead Man's Toes.--Sea-pens.--Sea-rods.--Red Coral.--Coral Fishery.--Isis hippuris.--Tropical Lithophytes.-- History of the Coral Islands.--Darwin's Theory of their Formation.--The progress of their Growth above the level of the Sea 345