[Footnote 6: Since the above was written, I have had an opportunity of
learning some additional facts respecting the habits of the young
Cyanea, which may, perhaps, apply to other Jelly-fishes also. Having
occasion to visit the wharves at Provincetown at about four o'clock
one morning, I was surprised to find thousands of the spring brood of
Cyaneæ, hitherto supposed to pass the early period of their existence
wholly in deep water, floating about near the surface. They varied in
size, some being no larger than a three-cent-piece, while others were
from an inch in diameter to three inches. It would seem that they make
their appearance only during the earliest morning hours, for at seven
o'clock, when I returned to the same spot, they had all vanished. It
may be that other young Medusæ have the same habits of early rising,
and that instead of coming to bask in the midday sunshine, like their
elders, they prefer the cooler hours of the dawn. (_A. Agassiz_.)]
_Melicertum_. (_Melicertum campanula_ PÉR. et LES.)
A pretty Medusa, smaller and far more readily obtained than the Tima,
is the Melicertum. (Fig. 80.) Its disk has a yellowish hue, and from
its margin hangs a heavy row of yellow tentacles, while the eight
ovaries (Fig. 79) are of a darker shade of the same color. This little
golden-tinted Jelly-fish, moving through the water with short, quick
throbs, produced by the rapid rise and fall of the disk, is a very
graceful object. Its bright color, made particularly prominent by the
darker undulating lines of the ovaries, which become very marked near
the spawning season, renders it more conspicuous in the water than one
would suppose from its size; for it does not measure more than an inch
in height when full grown. (See Fig. 80.)
[Illustration: Fig. 79. Melicertum campanula seen from above; _m_
mouth, _o o_ ovaries, _t t_ tentacles. (_Agassiz_.)]
_Development of Melicertum and Tima_.
[Illustration: Fig. 80. Melicertum seen in profile; natural size.]
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