FEBRUARY 2: In the Sea
“In the sea,” said daddy, “and far away in the tropics where the plants and birds and animals are very different from here, there are floating plant creatures known as Portuguese Men-of-War.
“The reason they’ve been given this name is because some one who was about to name them decided they looked like old battleships. The Portuguese Man-of-War is made up of many little creatures all joined together, just as though many of us were all fastened together in our villages or in our country places.
“Some of these creatures are very different from each other. The Portuguese Man-of-War is quite large, and when it is like this it is filled by a kind of gas which enters into it and which makes it look even larger than it is.
“It is beautifully colored and it floats on top of the water.
“These parts are the large members of the colony. The rest of them, or rather a second kind of members of the family, hang from under the side of these—many little creatures which form the largest part of the colony.
“Many of them are small and trumpet-shaped, and they are the ones who do the marketing and get the food for the rest.
“Then there are members of the colony who also hang from under the many members on top, and they are the fingers or the feelers for the community.
“There are still others who look like bunches of grapes, and they look after the baby creatures who come to form a part of this strange animal-plant.
“Still more of them are like great long ribbons and they are armed with cells which sting and slay young fishes down in the water. Then they bring up the food to the other members of the family.
“So, you see, this whole big community of many-colored little creatures, which are a kind of animal-plant life, all help each other. And they are all of many beautiful colors, and add as much to the beauty of the sea as anything else.
“But I want to make it quite clear that they are all together as a plant would be, and yet each has its purpose in life, whether it be to market or get the fish or look after the eggs.
“Lately I have seen in a great museum in one of the large cities a copy of one of these colonies made out of blown glass.
“There you can see the colors, for without the colors you can’t half imagine how lovely it is. The little creatures are lovely lavenders, and green, and purples, and browns, and pinks—all like a lovely mass of soft and delicate colors.
“So that the Portuguese Man-of-War and its little inhabitants are becoming better known.”