10 SEPIA. 



organs. They are divided into two compartments of curious form and 

 arrangement, each consisting of about twelve thin lobes, originating from 

 a stem somewhat like the I'ib of a feather, curving and diminishing as 

 more remote. The pulsation of the heart, along with a pulsatory action 

 of the branchioe, seem going on, but without any semblance of circula- 

 tion. It must be recollected, that much of the organic structure, and 

 inany of the vital functions, in nascent animals, are disguised by the 

 transparence concomitant on their early stages; also, that their natural 

 ^ngour is impaired by the exhaustion inseparable from being subjected to 

 tedious observations. The ink-bag, though quite conspicuous, is too 

 deeply seated for satisfactory microscopical inspection. 



Nothing indicates the source of that speckling which now colours the 

 body. It certainly results from some stimulus, whereby many of the 

 3''oung in the egg at once become speckled. During life the speckling 

 flits about and disappears, as the nascent animal is enfeebled, motionless, 

 and apparently dead. Black speckling seems the latest colouring with 

 subsisting animation. The eyes of the living creature are a beautiful 

 green. Fig. 9, a nascent animal, JunelG, shewing the colours, enlarged. 

 Fig. 10, nascent animal, more enlarged, shewing the internal oi-ganiza- 

 tion. Fig. 11, inner .surface of a tentaculum, studded with suckers 

 enlarged. 



The last of the young escaped on June 20, or in thirty-eight days 

 from the commencement of observation. At this time the spawn had 

 diminished considerably, as may be well understood, from the internas- 

 cent ova having discharged their contents. The ovum becomes opaque 

 on losing its foetus. 



The young animal extends just about three lines, on ]n"oduction. 

 I speak of that from the grapes most elongated : from others it is smaller. 

 This creature issues through the side of the ovum, leaving the mark of 

 its exit. 



The substance of the preceding observations has been derived from 

 elongated spawn obtained in May, and producing the young in June. 

 Notwithstanding the discrepancies between the offspring and the adults 

 of many creatures, the figure of the fins of the nascent Sepia would iden- 



