purple sail, (genus Velella), any of a genus of floating marine animals usually classified in the order Siphonophora (class Hydrozoa) and characterized by a saillike pneumatophore, or gas-filled float. Below the sail hang various structures: tentacles armed with nematocysts, or stinging cells; gonozooids, which have a reproductive function; and a single, central gastrozooid, the feeding and digesting organ.