Plate III. Cyanea Arctica
Illustrated by Auguste Sonrel (d. 1879)
Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America, Volume III
Part I. Acalephs in general
Part II. Ctenophoroe
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873)
Boston: Little, Brown and Company; London: Trübner & Co., 1860
Gould Library Special Collections
In the Preface to this volume, Agassiz praises Sonrel’s work on the project:
Most of the plates were drawn from nature and on stone by Mr. Sonrel; and it is but justice to him to say, that I do not know representations of Acalephs executed with greater accuracy, patience, and skill. . . I can truly say, that, without the aid of his persevering zeal, I could not have accomplished what I aimed at in this volume. (1)
In this plate, Sonrel depicts Cyanea Arctica as it might appear in nature, drifting at the surface of the water, a tangle of tentacles floating below. While other plates in this volume illustrate discrete anatomical structures, this one de-emphasizes those details to provide the viewer with a sense of the overall structure of the living creature.
(1) Louis Agassiz. Preface to Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America, Vol. III. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1857, p. vi.
Volume IV>