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Physalia   Listen
proper noun
Physalia  n.  (Zool.) A genus of large oceanic Siphonophora which includes the Portuguese man-of-war. Note: It has a large air sac, or float, with a sail-like crest on its upper side. Numerous zooids of different kinds are attached to the under side of the float. Some of the zooids have very long tentacles; some have a mouth and digest food; others produce gonophores. The American species (Physalia arethusa) is brilliantly colored, the float being pink or purple, and bright blue; the zooids blue. It is noted for its virulent stinging powers, as well as for its beautiful colors, graceful motions, and its ability to sail to windward.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Physalia" Quotes from Famous Books



... did not exactly know what he was to see, but he expected to find something uncommon. We had not rowed many strokes before one of the Physalia was observed floating by, its back ornamented with a fringe tinted with light-blue, delicate ...
— Mark Seaworth • William H.G. Kingston

... more, through the panels opening into these Caribbean waters ten meters below the surface of the waves, I found so many fascinating exhibits to describe in my daily notes! Among other zoophytes there were Portuguese men-of-war known by the name Physalia pelagica, like big, oblong bladders with a pearly sheen, spreading their membranes to the wind, letting their blue tentacles drift like silken threads; to the eye delightful jellyfish, to the touch actual nettles ...
— 20000 Leagues Under the Seas • Jules Verne

... last letter I think I mentioned to you that I had worked out and sent home to the President of the Linnean Society, through Captain Stanley, an account of Physalia, or Portuguese man-of-war as it is called, an animal whose structure and affinities had never been worked out. The careful investigation I made gave rise to several new ideas covering the whole class of animals to which this creature belongs, and these ideas I have had the ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 1 • Leonard Huxley



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