ACTINIA. 213 



tacula seemed, in a few minutes, to be eighteen. It was of large dimen- 

 sions, and of a dull reddish colour. — Plate XLVII. fig. 2. Parturition 

 here occupied fifteen or twenty minutes. 



A very long period sometimes intervenes without progeny : or many 

 young are produced within a limited season. One appears daily for seve- 

 ral days, or several in the course of a day. Six were produced within 

 twelve hours in July, seven within twenty-four in August, and nine within 

 as many in October. The litter of thirty-eight must not be forgot. 



As nearly as I could compute, the specimen represented Plate XLV. 

 produced 334 young in the course of twenty years. It continued breed- 

 ing during more than nineteen, though most irregularly, both in respect 

 to the number of the different broods, and the intervals between them. 

 Only forty-one were produced in the course of the last thirteen years, and 

 in some of them but a single individual. That which was produced 23d May 

 1844, in the seventeenth year of its captivity, is represented Plate XLVII. 



fig. 2. 



But, other specimens of the mesembryanthemum, have been propor- 

 tionally more prolific. One which was above four years in my possession, 

 produced no less than 200 young in the course of fourteen days. The 

 colour of all was very vivid ; but they were of very unequal size. I could 

 not discover any monstrosities among them. None of the progeny of the 

 specimen of Plate XLV. were monstrous, during a number of later years ; 

 though several were so of earlier date. 



The greatest disparity of size, colour, and in the progress of evolution, 

 prevails among the young, — nothing inferior to what is witnessed among 

 the gemmules. Some are produced as if in imperfect advance from the 

 embryonic stages, — small, misshapen, with marginal stumps ; abortive, or 

 few and distorted tentacula. Others, again, are full-grown, fine and florid, 

 their external organs completely developed, and as if ready to live indepen- 

 dently. Of seven produced at once in April, one equalled the united 

 dimensions of all the other six ; and of two produced in May, one was so 

 minute, as scarcely to equal the fifteenth part of its fellow. Farther, of six 

 produced in July, one nearly white, was not under a line in diameter ; ano- 

 ther, still later, was scarcely visible ; but in two days eight stumps indi- 



