Sea-nettles*
or Urticse
marina»
feet ip. length^and perfeq}s.npk;a,t it;s full^ptpjb^but.fo pênder, flimy,
and foluble, -th<it .out of .the, water it will not. bear -being £pi^<|d
without,brewing,; • it .bad ,the coptpCtile ypm £p •a?idiqgree5
th a x i j^ u id fhrink itfelf^^halfut^Jength^and then e x ^ c ^ d f
again a^ befo^f» But. to run through all the^lxprti}, p^-vs{Qrpis^ tlje
T e t ^ ^ Lerntea Jcokpndr^-, Pulm oneSyJE^^^^g^^y wqu|l
be repiqte, from my. 4p&gn, fome few enquiripsflp. excite ,cyjiofif|
mayhèré be fufficient, and a great deal, aftet entering^pto the
minuticey would, fee ftillincompleaty P^m a rC y^O .^m l yerum
Jecretutnque Matrjw^ / ^uatn multa inv&nitisy multa Ldi((titis f
' O f^lèarnettles:.(focalled from, the pungency ^ h .w h i c h they
affed the hand* not. very unlike .to that of jh e iand^pqttk;) \ye ha$e
the Urtica rubra, Saxo innata Aldrcmandi (Tab. de Zw$hy^y^\^i§^^
in almoft every; pool on the fearfhqres,. and alfo^the Urtica rubra
Rondeletii, (page d j g lib, x vu . chap, xvi£.j) In fóme caves in the
parifh o f Piran-Uthno, walhed often by yhe ti^e,((^.fqpnd .feveral;
in colour, they varied .‘from the finell fcajlet fom^egr.ees^dqwn ,t^T
the déepeft purple, finely ppwdeiqd with y^loW ^ ^ S j t which, as
%ie:ahiihai expired, became more-pale
^ as enwgetick with the elafpers by y r f^ ^ A e y ^ .th ^ e lv e s t<^
the rocks, as by their arms which are continually waying to and fro
in fcarch of. food. . ... , , i
O f fea-netdes, unfixed and nay ant y I haye obferved the-following
variety: ggg . [g|j ÉË, § . |
T he Urtica marinay Plate xxv. .Fig. ^ ^ ^ fiaU e d ffiedufa. .„I
have not found it fully delcribed, and tth'crefore I lhall be. mote particular
in my account o f i t : Its figure g| round, ^ i^s back.;conyex,
marked in the centre with a feeded circle, ö«igf.an auborn colour;;'
at three quarters of an inch diftance from the circle begin the fixjy
teen rays, b by which point inwards tb the centre, and "dwide^into
two branches or legs as they tend to the circumference, • each leg
terminating in a litde egg-like knob, Uif^fralf r o n e
fourth o f an inch diftant from ope,, another: after this infeCt had
relied about half an hour in the difh I placed it for view, a hamous,
crooked, little fang, d dy appeared and was protruded betwixt each
knob, as in the figure : the fubftance was a kind of jelly flelh, in
the middle hard and cartilaginous, the circle and rays were auborn,
the Body fomewhat clouded for an inch and a half round, and
under the central circle, but of the moll perfed cryllal tranlparency
every where elfe: its body was one inch and a quarter thick; from
the convexity, it defcended quick near the limb; fo that the egglike
knobs, a Gy fpread horizontally. In the centre of the under'part
7 Pliny Junr. to Fundanus.
of
o f the fame filli, F ig g j i i . was the mouth, edt,'m the figure o f a
crofs, which clofed or opened--;^ a ftrong mufcular, labium at each
angle o f the crofs did operate - at each extremity of the labia was
fixed stdfig oxmtentomluml f ƒ , about a quarter of an inch thick,
flat in fubftance, afrlbrn iri chlbuf, between three and four inches
long (perhaps maimed) j at the bafis, where thefe joined the
body,, they were larded or fanged by part of the fade cryllal jelfy
as that of the body, flat as a fin 5 within the mouth was a Cavity
of -about four inches diameter, where its fuftenance with its bowels
.was lodged“.
Fig- IX- ibidi^is thfiiback ofrairother variety of the inedufa kind;
It is cphyex:: in the middle, but Hopes away quicker than
at the edge', which is thin; in the centre it das a pale purple croft,
g i tof four »pointed rays, between* which there'arer four' belt-like
foliages of the ftrongeft purple ; from the extremities or-thefe foji-
^dSfprpeeed xijfs i f a feint purple diverging to the tircumferen^s
In the belly, of; the fame filh, Fig. x. there is a crofs-like Opening
made by the convention o f four triangular muicJes, l;and -at'each
commiflurc o f thefe mulcles there is a farigvor feg q f the fefrlitranf-
parent fubftance as' the body; with thefadegs, I apprehend thfey
tai% tfrdmMves from, or ftick dlole to, the place inhere they chufe
to reft, reach, and convey the food to the mouthj ufc fliem as ftps
to fwim, or as legs to walk through the patlis of the fba:
I Big. xi. ibid, is another variety of the', medufe’s, ami differs from
Fig. vet,' before defciibed in the following particulars': ;:It has no
circular mcleui in the middle, but;a i©oddd - ^ot only^ dts rays are
felid, and_ not divided into lines. I could perceive no hamous fengs
at the limb \ its tentocula or legs, m bSing extended, *lpreaid f6t{f--
tden laches, as in Fig. xu. which is the under part of this medufa.
Fig. xm. is- anodier variety : It has no colour but that o f l the
pureft cryllal jelly, oval in figure, on the bask it is convex, and
on the under part, ?Fig^ xiv.’ has four leparate cavities, but no fang,
-tentacle, or other projection.
Fig. xv. is the belly view of another Urtica of the;femtf4riiad as
the laft (as I imagine), but adult and perfect, found on the Mount’s
Bay fhore, Auguft 2, 1757, which 1^ have.never-feen deferibed : Its
brim much thinner than the other parts to further its motions, fcol-
loped, edged with fang-like appendixes at the feveral protuberances,
a b, and two others, (the reft probably broke off).. The holes,Vc c,
are the four mouths or inlets into the abdomen, fupplied with mufcular
excrelcencies which ferve -to clofeithem occafiorially. It had
eight legs, d d, all dependant from a ftem or ftalk, e: this Item is
| Qu. an Urtica ^ftrophyta Linnasiy Nat. Spedi ^j Gen, Zdoy^y. page 237.
IM drefled