DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLYPE. 221 



watcliing during many protrusions and retractions, I 

 was enabled to make out this witli sufficient distinct- 

 ness ; tliougli some portions of the area were still semi- 

 opaque, and therefore obscure. I could see also an am- 

 ple aperture on the surface opposite to that at which I 

 was looking (viz. the adhering base, for as it was in 

 a glass vessel, 1 could apply my microscope only to 

 the outside, and therefore only saw it through the 

 glass to which it had attached itself) ; this aperture 

 on the upper surface, was excentral, and situated on 

 the half nearest the spinous end. Possibly this aper- 

 ture was covered with a membrane, (like that in 

 Cellularia avicularia) for I think that the bundle of 

 tentacles were not protruded through it, but through 

 an orifice more terminal, yet still above the plane of 

 the spines. The body of the polype, of a horny 

 yellow hue, was doubly bent to one side, and behind 

 the angle was an irregular transverse mass of deep red 

 matter, and another small spot of the same was a 

 little on one side of the centre. These were all the 

 remains of the scarlet substance left. (See fig. 3). 



On the morning of the third day I found the polype 

 perfectly formed and well-expanded, a circle of 

 thirteen tentacles; these were usually protruded in 

 the form of a funnel, with the rim so slightly everted 

 as scarcely to entitle it to be called a bell, but now 

 and then they were momentarily spread out quite flat 

 so as to make a beautiful plane star, the tips forming 

 a regular circle. I could now distinctly see the intes- 

 tinal tube, which is inserted into the stomach low 

 down in the body, and proceeds nearly parallel with 

 it to the aperture. The body of the pol^-pe is con- 



