194 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP [1884. 



The pocket lens of the collector was of course insufficient to 

 reveal any distinctive characters in the individuals composing 

 these colonies, and we failed in the attempt to bring any of them 

 alive within reach of our microscopes, so that a full determination 

 of the species has awaited the recent germination of some of the 

 numerous statoblasts then secured. Their death in the glass jar, 

 in which some of the colonies were carried, made it necessary 

 several times during the past winter to change the water and 

 wash out the corrupt matter. On these occasions the statoblasts 

 were saved by pouring the water through a sieve. The winter 

 months passed, and April and May came, but still they did not 

 germinate, and I was on the point of discarding the whole as life- 

 less when a number of embryo colonies were fortunately discovered 

 upon the sides of the jar. 



These consisted of from one to eight polypides and exhibited 

 this constant peculiarity. The coenoecium, in a lateral view, might 

 be compared in shape to a shoe ; the coencecial cells, whether few 

 or many, occupying solely the elevated or ankle portion ; the 

 other extremity was always prolonged into one of the many forms 

 which fashion has dictated for our foot-covering, from the cylin- 

 drical pointed toes of some hundrds of years ago to the abbrevi- 

 ated stumps which still form the Chinese ideal of beauty. This 

 feature was very conspicuous, but as I am unable to compare 

 these young colonies with other species at a similar stage, I hesi- 

 tate to assume its novelty. In the later hatchings it is far less 

 noticeable, and in the most advanced stages which any of the 

 healthy colonies have reached, the prolongation has ceased to be 

 a prominent feature. 



An ounce phial contained a quantity of the statoblasts which 

 were supposed to have lost their vitality by " fouling." These 

 were now washed thoroughly in a sieve and placed in a half-gallon 

 jar of water. In about ten days I was rewarded by finding that 

 they had germinated by scores, and the surface of the water was 

 dotted with tiny groups floating with the disc side upward ; the 

 polyp heads and their beautiful plumes of tentacles depending 

 and spreading below. 



On removing a number of the statoblasts, firmly held together 

 by their marginal hooks, for moi'e minute examination under the 

 microscope, I found them in all the primary stages of develop- 

 ment ; from the as yet unaltered condition in which whatever of 



