38 



ZOOPHYTES. 



Fig. 30. Fig. 21. 



This margin is very thin, and in folds, mesentery-like, similar to that 

 supporting a spermatic cord. The ovules are en- 

 veloped in an extension of it, and a narrow projec- 

 tion of the same may be observed at the line of 

 junction between the two series of clusters. Figure 

 21 represents part of a transverse section enlarged, 

 of the Actinia florida (p. 131), from near the base 

 of the animal, examined after contraction in alcohol; 

 the dotted portion represents the position of the ova- 

 rian clusters, which lie between the lamellae, al- 

 though distinctly attached to the margin. The 

 adjoining ovaries of different lamella? appear, in some instances, to 

 coalesce. 



The ejection of the ovules appears to take place by the mouth. 

 The extremity of the tentacles,* and supposed openings near the base 

 of the same, have been stated to give them exit. But the existence of 

 these openings is not proved ; and the punctures at the extremities of 

 the tentacles are certainly too small for that purpose, in the majority 

 of species, if not in all. The visceral cavity in which they are 

 formed, communicates freely, with the exterior waters through the 

 stomach, affording them a direct and open passage. The mouth is 

 made the place of exit by Spix ;f and Dalyell also asserts that, ac- 

 cording to his frecjuent observations, they are "produced by the 

 mouth." Both ovules and living young, in the course of his inves- 

 tigations, were often disgorged by the parent in numbers along with 

 the half-digested food. 



As the tubular interior of the tentacles communicates freely with 

 the interseptal spaces of the visceral cavity, it is no anomaly that 

 ovules should be found within the tentacles, as stated by the last-men- 

 tioned observer. By amputation, he frequently obtained them from 

 these organs ; and one ovule thus procured, became a mature animal, 

 began to "breed in fourteen months, and survived nearly five years. "f 



* Delle Chiaje, Bull, des Sciences Nat., xvii. 471. See farther on this subject, in 

 Johnston's Zoophytes, from whom this citation is made, p. 201. 



t Carus Comp. Anat. Trans., ii. 308, pi. 1, figure 10. 



^ Dalyell states, that "fourteen animated beings" were produced at once by an Actinia 

 equina, or mesembryanthemum, in his possession. Six were young with tentacles, and 

 eight, ovules undeveloped. "All were sufficiently vivacious, sometimes moving, some- 

 times reposing." In eight days the vibratile cilia disappeared from the ovules, and they 

 became stationary ; in eleven days incipient tentacles were distinguished in one ; and in 



