ALCYONAEIA 



879 



thread lies coiled up in their interior; and at E, F, G, H are seen 

 a few of the most striking forms which they exliil.it when the thread 



These thread-cells are found not merely in 



or dart has started forth. 



the tentacles 



the external 



tinozoa, but also in the 



merits which lie in coils 



and other parts of 

 Ac- 

 fila- 

 within 



integument 



>f 



long 



the chambers that surround the 

 stomach, in contact with the 

 sexual organs which are attached 

 to the lamella? dividing the cham- 

 bers. The latter sometimes con- 

 tain 'sperm-cells' and sometimes 

 ova, the two sexes being here 

 divided, not united in the same 

 individual. What can lie the 

 office of the filiferous filaments 

 thus contained in the interior of 

 the body it is difficult to guess 

 at. They are often found to pro- 

 trude from rents in the external 

 tegument, when any violence has 

 been used in detaching the animal 

 from its base ; and when there is 

 no external rupture they are often 

 forced through the wall of the 

 stomach into its cavity, and may 

 be seen hanging out of the mouth. 

 The largest of these capsules, in 

 their unprotected state, are about 

 :1 i' M ,th of an inch in length : while 

 the thread or dart, in Corynactis 

 Allitiaiiin, when fully extended 

 is not less than ^th of an inch, 

 or thirty-seven times the length 

 of its capsule. 1 



( )f the Alcyonaria a character- 

 istic example is found in the Alc;/- 

 ot/ium digitatum of our coasts ; F 

 a lobed sponge-like mass, covered 

 with a tough skin, which is com- 

 monly known under the name of 

 dead-man's toes,' or by the 

 more elegant name of ; mermaid's 

 this is first torn from the rock to 

 contracts into an unshapely mass. 



fl\ 



\J 



!(;. 666. Filiferous capsules of Acti- 

 iin;<iin : A, B, Cnri/i/nft/x Allmanni', 

 C, E, F, (',in/f>i>li/jiri,i XmitJiii; D, G, 

 ri'tiHNtfoi'itts ', H, Ai'tiit/u fiin- 



fingers. 



When a specimen of 

 which it lias attached itself, it 

 whose surface presents 



nothing 



1 See Mr. (iosse's Xnt/irulisfa llnniltli'x on tin' ]")>/< 

 h, ' IVljrr ilen Buu u.s.w. dt-r Nesselkapseln 



Const, and Professor 

 r 1'olypen nnd Quallen,' in 



Abhandl. X/itur/r. I'rfcinn ~.n Hamburg, Band v. ISKI;. On the relations of stinging 

 cells to the nervous system, >-( l)v. v. LcndcntVld, tjnurt. Jn/ini. <>f Mictpse. Set. n.s. 

 xxvii. p. :-!'.):-!. On the stinging cells of Co-lentHni ^fnei-ally, see X. Iwanzoff in Bull . 

 Sor. Mosrow, 1896, pp. '.15 and:-!-2::. 



