2IO CHAS. W. HARGITT. 



the origin of the gonophores the eggs appear in considerable 

 numbers in the entoderm of the peduncle, as previously stated, 

 and with the later budding of the gonophore bodies either migrate 

 into them, or as seems to be the case in many instances, originate 

 directly from the entoderm of the spadix or lateral walls of the 

 gonophore. At first they have the characteristic aspects of ordi- 

 nary ovocytes, namely, a very large germinal vesicle, with char- 

 acteristic chromatin network, a comparatively small proportion of 

 cytoplasm, which is more or less homogeneous in texture, and 

 staining quite uniformly with any of the ordinary plasma stains. 

 Evidences of growth are first indicated by the rapid increase in 

 the mass of the cytoplasm, while that of the nucleus for a time 

 remains apparently unchanged, though later also increasing in 

 mass likewise, though to a much less degree. Nutrition of the 

 ova is at first, indeed throughout so far as I can determine, by 

 direct absorption from the entoderm of the spadix, or to a less 

 degree also from the entoderm of the lateral walls of the gono- 

 phore. I find no evidence of the absorption of supernumerary 

 ovocytes involved in the matter of nutrition, and in this respect 

 C. leptostyla appears to differ somewhat from C. sqnainata. Ac- 

 cording to Harm there would seem to be involved both these 

 processes. He says that by the direct assimilation of yolk-like 

 granules from the entoderm cells of the hydranth, and by osmosis 

 from the walls of the gonophore the egg is nourished, and that 

 furthermore, the youngish egg-cells are also nourished by the ab- 

 sorption of ovocytes (op. cit., pp. II, 12). 



The presence of the yolk-like particles to which he refers I 

 have also recognized in the entoderm of the hydranth body at this 

 period. They resemble in all essentials the pigmented yolk 

 granules later found in the fully grown egg, but I have found no 

 evidence that they are ever directly absorbed by the young egg. 

 On the other hand there is ample evidence to the effect that they 

 are gradually broken down and probably liquefied, in which con- 

 dition they may be easily transferred to the gonophores and ab- 

 sorbed by the young eggs. In an earlier paper ('04) I have 

 directed attention to similar phenomena in the growth of the 

 eggs of Pachycordyle, and it undoubtedly occurs in many 

 others. 



