DEVELOPMENT OF AURELIA. 69 



they are one of the forms of the Sunfish, which had already 

 received the name of Aurelia. The figure which I have here, 

 (fig. 36,) represents this young Aurelia after it has been a free 

 individual for a few days, and a slight change in its conforma- 

 tion has taken place. In shape it resembles a broadly spread 

 umbrella, with a short, thick handle, the latter being the funnel 

 which I mentioned just now. This funnel is a sort of proboscis 

 which has the mouth (m) at the end of it. From the proboscis 

 a passage opens into a broad, but not very deep central cavity, 

 and from the latter sixteen wide tubes stretch out like the 

 spokes of a wheel and join a broad circular channel (), which 

 passes around close to the edge of the umbrella. From the 

 circular tube a short one passes into each of the eight, equi- 

 distant, double-lobed lappets (I). These cavities and canals con- 

 stitute the digestive system, within which the particles of food 

 circulate, backward and forward, through the agency of vibrat- 

 ing cilia, which are everywhere present, from the mouth to the 

 ends of the canals in the lappets. Between every two of the 

 latter there is a tongue-shaped body (v), and a single finger- 

 shaped tentacle. The former is thin and pointed like a lancet, 

 and possesses a great degree of extensibility and contractility, 

 owing to its highly muscular development. It is the future mar- 

 ginal curtain or veil of the adult (fig. 37, v). The single tenta- 

 cle is the first, and always remains the central one when the 

 number is increased, in extreme age, to more than a hundred in 

 each of the eight groups which alternate with the lappets (fig. 

 37, I). 



At the bottom of the deep notch of each lappet there is a 

 short, thick, finger-shaped body, (fig. 36, o,) with a bright, glis- 

 tening tip. By the help of the microscope, we find that this 

 glistening is caused by several closely set, minute, magnifying 

 lenses, which to all appearances act on the light in the same way 

 that the lenses in the eyes of insects do. On this account, these 

 gem-tipped fingers are called the eye-peduncles, the group of 

 lenses the eye, and the lappets (/) the ocular lobes. 



The rudiments of the reproductive organs are four groups (r) 



