340 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Seed-like Body of Spongilla 



appears very little difference between the development of the 

 monociliated and unciliated polymorphic cells which takes place 

 from the refractive granules of the ovum of Spongilla when the 

 latter are forcibly ejected, and the development of monads pro- 

 duced from the contents of the internode of Nitella in the way 

 which I have mentioned; while the fact of the former being 

 identical with the same kind of cells developed in the natural 

 way, goes far to prove that those developed from the contents of 

 the internode of the latter do not belong to a foreign organism. 



Since the above was written, I have had the good fortune to 

 meet with a copy of Professor Allman's Monograph on the 

 Polyzoa, published by the Ray Society in 1856; and I find that 

 he also produced a distinctly pink colour, indicative of the 

 presence of cellulose, by the addition of iodine to the ectocyst or 

 tunic of Plumatella repens (p. 15), as Kolliker and Lowig had 

 done in the mantle of the Tunicata, — thus showing that starch 

 is almost as generally distributed in Lophopus as in Spongilla, 

 although until latterly I have denied its existence in the ova of 

 the latter, probably because the large grains are not to be found 

 in every specimen. 



But the most important part of this excellent work, to which 

 I have to allude here, is the unquestionable decision at which 

 Professor AUman has arrived respecting the nature of the " win- 

 ter-egg ^' of the Polyzoa, which he finds not to be an ovum, but 

 an encapsuled gemma, "in which the developmental activity 

 remains for a period latent.^^ Thus, as there is no doubting the 

 fact, for Prof. Allman has seen the true ovum and its develop- 

 ment in Alcyonella fungosa (p. 32) in addition to the " winter- 

 egg," we must again alter our views of the nature of the seed- 

 like body of Spongilla, and, regarding it in the light of this high 

 authority, adopt for it the term of " statoblast," which Prof. 

 Allman has applied to the " winter-egg " of the Polyzoa. The 

 ovum and spermatozoa of Spongilla, therefore, still remain to be 

 discovered. 



In reference to the " geographical distribution'' of the Fresh- 

 water Polyzoa, the same author states that they have not been 

 mentioned as existing in the tanks of India ; but since his work 

 has appeared, I have described and figured a species like Flustra, 

 which was sent to me by the llev. S. Hislop, who discovered it 

 in a freshwater tank at Nagpoor, in Central India, in April 1857, 

 and sent it to me in the following November*; just previous to 

 which, I had found a marine Paludicella in the brackish water of 

 the marshes ; and since that, I have observed the Plumatella and 

 Lophopus above mentioned in the freshwater tanks of the island 

 * Annals, vol. i. p. 169, 1858. 



