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Webster 1913 Edition
Velella
‖
Ve-lel′la
,Noun.
[NL., dim. from L.
velum
a veil, a sail.] (Zool.)
Any species of oceanic Siphonophora belonging to the genus
Velella
. ☞ These creatures are brilliantly colored and float at the surface of the sea. They have an oblong, disklike body, supported by a thin chitinous plate, from which rises a thin diagonal crest which acts as a sail. The feeding and reproductive zooids hang down from the under side of the disk.