58 SARSIA GEMMIFERA. 
lobed veil, festooning, as it were, the spaces between the ocellated tubercles. From each of 
the latter arises a tentacle, rather short, thick, cylindrical, moniliformly granulated, and of an 
orange colour. Each tentacle is placed opposite the point at which one of the four gastric 
vessels joins the marginal one. From the centre of the sub-umbrella is suspended the 
peduncle, perforating its summit, and terminating there in a small conical process of granular 
tissue. The peduncle is shorter than the umbrella, but may be extended slightly beyond it. 
It is slender, cylindrical, and tubular, but is capable of changing form greatly, and often 
swells out into a club- or bottle-shaped extremity, ending in the mouth, which is round. The 
peduncle is of an orange colour, like the tentacles, but much paler. 
The peduncle presented the appearance of being ramified, or rather pmnated, variously- 
shaped processes projecting from the sides. When several individuals were compared, it was 
found that these pinnations did not correspond, and a closer inquiry made it evident that they 
were in reality young individuals, in various stages of development, budding from the pedun- 
cular tissue. They are not distributed over its surface in any regular order according to their 
degree of advancement, but intermingled, as may be seen in the much magnified representation 
of the peduncle in an individual, different from that which is drawn entire. (See 2, e, and 
compare it with 2,6.) At the same time there is an indistinct spiral arrangement to be 
observed, and the peduncle has a tendency to assume angular bendings at the points from 
which the buds spring. The earliest stages of one of these buds is that which I have 
represented at 2, 7, where the tissue of the surface of the peduncle simply bulges out as a 
small wart, whilst there is a corresponding indentation in the tubular cavity beneath. This 
indentation increases with the growth of the wart, which takes upon itself a club shape, and, 
at the same time, there is a notch-like appearance towards the base at the upper part of the 
club (2, g’). In a stage more advanced, the club begins to assume a globular form, and the 
excavation, if anything, decreases, not projecting beyond the notch, but a new cavity has 
appeared independently within the club, and has possibly been formed by the division of the 
old cavity into two parts, and the isolation of its upper part (2,2). In the stage represented 
at 2, 2, the development has advanced rapidly; the club begins to present a four-lobed aspect, 
and the internal cavity has greatly enlarged. An assemblage of small dots, mdicative of an 
ocellus, appears opposite each lobe. After this it would appear, that correspondent with the 
increase of the lobes, is the opening of the cavity and the formation of a peduncle ; for, in the 
highest condition of these gemmz which I have had an opportunity of examining, the bud 
presents the appearance of a little bell (3, 4), open, and having a rudimentary proboscis 
within it; the lobes are much more elongated, and at their bases are seen not only the little 
ocelli present in the last stage described, but others below them of a jet-black colour. It is 
evident that the former are the orange portions of the tentacular bulbs, and the latter, the 
black ocelli beneath them, whilst the lobes, which have already become of a conspicuous 
orange colour (as well as the peduncle), are the tentacles in course of development. The 
four gastric vessels are also now manifest, so that we have a young Sarsia nearly ready to 
drop from its parent, and shift for itself. 
Plate VII, fig. 2, a, represents this interesting animal of the natural size; 2, b, the same, 
magnified; 2, c, the summit of the peduncle; 2, d, a tentacular bulb with its ocelli; 2, e, the 
peduncle of another individual, with its bulbs; and 2, f to 2, &, the various stages of develop- 
ment of the buds as just described. 
