comparative physiology

''they seemed to be enormous, iridescent cones about ten feet high and ten feet wide at the base, and made up of some ridgy, scaly, semi-elastic matter. from their apexes projected four flexible, cylindrical members, each a foot thick, and of a ridgy substance like that of the cones them selves. these members were sometimes contracted almost to nothing, and sometimes extended to any distance up to about ten feet.

''terminating two of them were enormous claws or nippers. on the end of a third were four red, trumpet like appendages. the fourth terminated in an irregular yellowish-globe some two feet in diameter and having three great dark eyes ranged along its central circumference. surmounting this head were four slender gray stalks bearing flower-like appendages, whilst from its nether side dangled eight greenish antennae or tentacles.

''the great base of the central cone was fringed with a rubbery, gray substance which moved the whole entity through expansion and contraction. ... the huge nippers were used in carrying books and in conversation--speech consisting of a kind of clicking. ... they commonly carried their head and its supporting members at the level of the cone top, though it was frequently raised or lowered. ... the other three great members tended to rest downward at the sides of the cone, contracted to above five feet each, when not in use. ...

''cell action was of an unique sort almost precluding fatique, and wholly eliminating the need of sleep. nourishment, assimilated through the red trumpet like appendages on one of the great flexible limbs was always semifluid and in many aspects wholly unlike the food of existing animals. the beings had but two of the senses which we recognize--sight and hearing, the latter accomplished through the flower-like appendages on the gray stalks above their heads. ...

''their three eyes were so situated as to give them a range of vision wider than the normal. their blood was a sort of deep-greenish ichor of great thickness. they had no sex, but reproduced through seeds or spores which clustered on their bases and could be developed only under water. great, shallow tanks were used for the growth of their young--which were, however, reared only in small numbers on account of the longevity of individuals--four or five thousand years being the common life span.''

h.p.lovecraft, the shadow out of space.