230 ZOOPHYTES. 



escape his notice. It is unequal and ragged to the eye, though all the 

 other parts be regular, smooth, and even. 



This irregularity, at first hardly sensible, and requiring a lens to dis- 

 cover it, gradually increases more distinctly, becoming such as delineated 

 of a specimen on September 3. — Plate XLVII. fig. 13. Next we behold 

 diminutive fragments of the margin separating, which consist of the ele- 

 ments of embryo Actinia;, consolidated there, and developed into indepen- 

 dent existence, as seen in fig. 14, fourteen days subsequent to the preced- 

 ing representation. But the rapid progress of the subject now produces 

 such an alteration, that in a single day two originating Actinise unfolded 

 their external organs, and besides these, a multitude of fragments was ad- 

 vancing. — Fig. 15. 



Thus, an uncommon mode of propagation is effected, by the sponta- 

 neous separation of fragments from the margin of the base of the parent 

 Actinia, each containing the elements of its progeny, and by progressive 

 evolution unfolding as a new animal. 



But a considerable interval elapses during this generative process. 

 The marginal irregularity of the base consists in the incipient separation 

 of various solid parts, whose connection with it is about to be dissolved. 

 Here let the reader recollect what has been said of the separation of the 

 young pullulating from the body of the Hydra tuba. He will find nearly 

 the same general principles now in operation. The fragments of the Ac- 

 tinia withdraw gradually from the base, though still connected by a liga- 

 ment, continually refining with its extension. This ligament is elevated 

 somewhat above that part of the surface of the vessel interposed between 

 the parent and the young. Not lying flat on the glass, it belongs rather 

 to the side than to the under surface of the base of the parent. 



In proportion to the progress of the embryo, and the maturity of the 

 young, the ligament is prolonged and attenuated, fig. 16, until connection 

 with the parent is entirely dissolved by its rupture. 



It is not quite obvious how the prolongation is effected, unless by 

 contraction of the basis, and recession of the fragment from the point it 

 originally occupied. The basis becomes quite ragged and disfigured by 

 the separation of many fragments. 



