PREVIOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF CNIDARIA 183 



It will be easier to understand the actual conditions if we 

 begin our comparison of anthopolyps and scyphopolyps with 

 such forms as Antipatharia among Anthozoa, and with Nausi- 

 tho'e whose polyp generation has been described under the 

 name Stephanoscyphus or Spongicola. The polyp generation of 

 Naiisithoe (probably also of several other genera) forms genuine 

 cormi (colonies) and an organic exoskeleton (periderm). There 

 are four sarcosepta only which are richly equipped with fila- 

 ments, and a large quantity of longitudinal strings of mus- 

 cular tissue (they were called taeniolae by Komai) which occur 

 under the skin in the wall layer. Gonads appear in the sarco- 

 septa of the scyphopolyp of Nausitho'e, a phenomenon which 

 cannot be observed in a typical scyphystoma (a completely 

 unnecessary name); this has been partly the cause of the errone- 

 ous interpretation that we have here a medusa larva, even if 

 gonads do not come to their sexual maturity in it, but only 

 later in the medusoid generation which in Scyphozoa takes 

 over the sexual function. 



Nobody can, in view of all these facts, doubt the homology 

 between the sarcosepta of Anthozoa and the so-called taeniolae 

 of scyphopolyps. We must only give up the supposition 

 that sarcosepta had been developed from taeniolae. In the 

 ontogeny of scyphopolyps we can observe even more clearly 

 than in the ontogeny of anthopolyps, the development of 

 sarcosepta as longitudinal folds or excrescences of the "sto- 

 mach pockets." This is actually the same as the formation of 

 intestinal diverticula. In the literature (Goette) we can even 

 find data w^hich show that there is first one pair of such 

 intestinal diverticula, so that for a short time bisymmetry 

 prevails, just as in the ontogenies of Actiniae. 



One of the greatest differences between the sarcosepta of 

 anthopolyps and of scyphopolyps can be found in their muscle 

 systems. It is an important and unexplainable difference for 

 those who adhere to the outdated and erroneous gastraea 

 theory and to the theory of two body layers that are separated 

 from each other by a Chinese Wall, when in Anthozoa the flag 

 13* 



