I found also that the united animals had the power of swimming with either end foremost.
There was an intestinal tube in the animal of a dark reddish brown colour.

This animal appeared to exist very badly alone, fourteen of them were always found united together by a plane; they then formed a mass shaped like half an orange and having a cup at its upper surface; the intestinal canals, when they are in this position, are all brought near to one another, and the whole mass looks not unlike a flower; they are united to one another by so thick a fluid that it is very difficult to separate them.

If one or more are torn away from the mass the outside ones immediately join together and form a united mass again, of the original shape.

They open the orifices at different times: that is, two or three open theirs at the moment that some of the others are closing, so that no regular or simultaneous movement takes place between the different animals.

This irregular movement of the animals gives to the whole body an irregular rotatory motion; but when one is separated from the others it can only drive itself round and round upon its own centre, and has not the faculty of propelling itself as the other acalepha have.
They also swim with either end foremost, in the manner the other acalepha do.
We saw also some animals of this class, and nearly as large as the ones I have just described, but they differed in their form and mode of attachment, and joined themselves in long strings, two deep, so as to look like gelatinous snakes.