232 ZOOPHYTES. 



therefore, according to the nearest computation, above seventy young were 

 evolved and detached from the base of the parent in the course of a year. 



At a certain stage the young of this species appears vascular, elonga- 

 ted, and transparent, or nearly white. The internal structure is well ex- 

 posed, shewing the stomach as moulded to the form of whatever may be 

 the contents which have been absorbed, while the orifice contracts and 

 closes over them. The tentacula, still very short, remain distended. On 

 adhesion the preternatural elongation is lost : but the young Actiniae con- 

 tinue for a long time free. 



Many of the brood appear monstrous originally. Permanent monstro- 

 sities, however, are rare. Among numbers, only a single individual had 

 two discs crowning one body, — and the double disc of another was sepa- 

 rated by a shallow cleft. 



Apparent monstrosity seems peculiarly incident to the young of this 

 species. Many set apart by me in that belief, invariably became symme- 

 trical. Seven or eight young were produced by the specimen fig. 12, 

 fifteen months after it came into my possession, and a number subsequent- 

 ly. One of the young, which at first appeared monstrous, became gradu- 

 ally symmetrical. In twenty weeks it was three lines high. It was vigor- 

 ous and beautiful in thirty-five weeks, resembling a minute pillar, with 

 the capital and base twice the diameter of the shaft. Twenty-seven slen- 

 der, delicate, blue tentacula, spread an inch between the opposite tips. 

 The disc always convex, was of a fine deep orange colour. At nine 

 months old it began to breed by losing portions of the base ; and its pro- 

 geny amounted to forty in eighty days. 



The preceding is the only definite mode of propagation I have wit- 

 nessed, though sedulous attention has not been wanting to discover whe- 

 ther there might not be some other. In three successive years a number 

 of white or grey spherules appeared from adults on July 25, 26, 27 re- 

 spectively, which speedily decomposed notwithstanding my precautions to 

 preserve them. — Plate XL VII. fig. 17. 



If some specimens, such as that represented fig. 12, have survived 

 above three years in my possession without perpetuating their race by any 

 other method than mutilation of the base, that I could discover, I am 



