We have already mentioned that some of the jelly-fishes possess the power of stinging.  Only a few of the larger species, however, seem to be thus endowed; and the name sea-nettle is by no means applicable to the class as a whole.  The poisonous fluid which produces the irritating effect on the skin, and no doubt paralyses the creatures upon which the jelly-fish feeds, is secreted by the arms.  By means of its poison-bearing tentacles, the soft, gelatinous medusa is more than a match for the armed crustacean and the scale-clad fish.  We take from Professor Forbes the following graphic description of one of the stinging species:—­’The Cyanaea capillata of our seas is a most formidable creature, and the terror of tender-skinned bathers.  With its broad, tawny, festooned, and scalloped disk, often a full foot or more across, it flaps its way through the yielding waters, and drags after it a long train of ribbon-like arms, and seemingly interminable tails, marking its course when its body is far away from us.  Once tangled in its trailing “hair,” the unfortunate who has recklessly ventured across the graceful monster’s path too soon writhes in prickly torture.  Every struggle but binds the poisonous threads more firmly round his body, and then there is no escape; for when the winder of the fatal net finds his course impeded by the terrified human wrestling in its coils, he, seeking no contest with the mightier biped, casts loose his envenomed arms, and swims away.  The amputated weapons severed from their parent body vent vengeance on the cause of their destruction, and sting as fiercely as if their original proprietor itself gave the word of attack.’

We now approach the most extraordinary portion of the history of these creatures.  Recent investigations have brought to light the most interesting facts respecting their reproduction and development.  It is now known that the young jelly-fish passes through a series of transformations before reaching its perfect state.

At certain seasons, eggs are produced within the body of the parent in appropriate ovaries, where they are retained for a time.  They are then transferred to a kind of marsupial pouch, analogous to that of the kangaroo, where their development proceeds.  After passing through certain changes here, the egg issues from the maternal pouch as an oval body, clothed with cilia—­an animalcule in external aspect, and as unlike its parent as can well be imagined.  For awhile the little creature dances freely through the water, and leads a gay, roving life; but at last it prepares to ‘settle;’ selects a fitting locality; applies one extremity of its body to the surface of stone or weed, and becomes attached.  And now another change passes over it.  The cilia, no longer needed, disappear.  A mouth is developed at the upper extremity of the body, furnished with a number of arms.  Gradually this number increases, and the jelly-fish now appears in the disguise of a polype, which feeds voraciously on the members of