350 GEMMULES OF TURIIIS. 



and inclined to orange, and many oval gemmules of 

 dark lake-crimson, or purple, were seen in its sub- 

 stance. On the floor of the cell in which it was con- 

 fined were more than a dozen of the gemmules already 

 escaped ; I at first supposed them eggs, but on closer 

 examination, found that they were active little swim- 

 ming creatures with a will of their own ; that they 

 were in fact gemmules, perfectly oval in form, about 

 inch in lengfth, and of a fine lake hue : their whole 



100 •'"^" '" ^-"O' 



surface covered with vibratile cilia, by means of which 

 they glided about with an even quick motion. (See 

 %. 9). 



Two days afterwards these gemmules were still 

 active, and possessed the power of locomotion. They 

 were not perceptibly changed in appearance, except 

 that they seemed a little larger. 



On the 4th Sept. I noticed one lying at the bottom 

 of the phial in which I had put them. I extracted it 

 by means of a glass tube, and found that its colour 

 had become paler, being now of a rose-pink, that its 

 surface was irregularly granulose as if decomposing, 

 and that motion had ceased. 



On the same day I took two specimens about -^ in. 

 high, brilliantly conspicuous from the orange coloured 

 or pale vermillion ovaries studded with large ova of a 

 ■£\g\\ purjyle hue. The umbrella is remarkably turbid, 

 being scarcely more than pellucid, and appearing 

 quite white against a dark background. When rest- 

 ing in a phial of water, the tentacles are elongated, 

 like white threads of an equal thickness throughout, 

 and are extended in every direction, some perpen- 

 dicularly upwards, some downwards, and some arching 



