NEW FACTS. 311 



I shall have to recur to this point hereafter ; mean- 

 while I may add that, in the course of a long investi- 

 gation into the development of the Campanularian and 

 Plumidarian Polypes — especially P. myriophyllum 

 (Plate IV., fig 2), from deep water off Jersey — I found 

 that not only does the Polype produce Polypes by 

 means of ova, but also produces Medusce in the same 

 way ; so that instead of the production of Medusae 

 being only one of simple budding, it resembles the 

 production of Polypes in being sometimes a process of 

 budding, and sometimes a process of ovij^arity. I 

 have followed this development through all its stages ; 

 and as what I have seen may be seen by any one who 

 chooses to devote the requisite patience, I shall merely 

 clear away certain theoretical obstructions which may 

 screen the real facts. 



In Dr Carpenter's summary of the views held by 

 naturalists, we read that the ovarian capsules (the large 

 vesicles which rise from the stem of the polypidom) 

 are improperly designated ovarian, because " they have 

 been shown by Professor E. Porbes to be in reality 

 metamorphosed branches." The force of this objec- 

 tion escapes me. Wolff and Goethe have shown the 

 stamens and pistils to be metamorphosed leaves, but 

 no one denies them, on that account, to be reproductive 

 organs. The capsule in question is not a branch, but 

 a capsule, and the proof of its being an ovarian capsule 

 is the fact that in it ova are developed. This, indeed, 

 Dr Carpenter denies, for he continues,* " These Medusa 



* Principles of Coniparative Physiology, p. 552. 



