CAPABILITY OF SPONTANEOUS DIVISION. 247 



J. Daly ell witnessed with considerable surprise, after 

 the lapse of three or four weeks, the regeneration of a 

 complete set of arborescent tentacula in each posterior 

 half of the two specimens, and all four parts were 

 moving gaily about in their tank, completely fur- 

 nished with their tentacular apparatus. This, how- 

 ever, was not all : in another week the anterior portion 

 of the Holothuria sundered again near the middle, so 

 that what originally constituted one entire animal 

 now consisted of three parts. Afterwards another 

 portion separated from one of the five parts at that 

 time in the vessel, but from which was uncertain if 

 from the smaller, each of the original Holothurise had 

 divided into three. All continued shifting their 

 places, and some of them occasionally displaying their 

 tentacula until May 27th of the following year, when 

 the whole six were complete and perfect animals. 



The remarkable subdivision of these creatures, Sir 

 J. Daly ell observes, does not appear to result either 

 from constraint or from injury ; nay, there is nothing 

 to show that the Holothuria undergoing such disrup- 

 tion suffers very much during the process. 



Condensing the substance of these and other obser- 

 vations, it appears that the spontaneous separation 

 above described ensues thus. The specimen remains 

 stationary during some time on the side of its vessel, 

 when each extremity broadens, and flattens beyond 

 its usual dimensions. This flattening occupies a con- 

 siderable portion of the body, but diminishes from 

 the broadest parts situated anteriorly and posteriorly 

 towards the middle of the animal, giving it somewhat 

 the appearance of a common sand-glass. At length 



