164 MARVELS OF POND-LIFE. 



July and August are the best times for observing 

 the ovaries, and they are most conspicuous in the 

 genera AlcyonelJa and PaludiceUa. True eggs are 

 developed in the ovaries in a manner resembling 

 this mode of multiplication in other animals; but 

 there is another kind of ^gg^ or, perhaps to speak 

 more properly, a variety of bud, which is extremely 

 curious. In looking at our specimens we noticed 

 brown oval bodies in the cells; these, on careful 

 examination, presented the appearance of the sketch. 

 The centre is dark, covered with a net-work, which 

 is more conspicuous in the lighter coloured and 

 more transparent margins. These curious bodies 

 are produced from the funiculus, and act as reserves 

 of propagative force, as they are not hatched or 

 developed until they get out and find themselves 

 exposed to appropriate circumstances. Professor 

 All man names them Statoblasts^ or stationary germs, 

 and they bear some resemblance to what are called 

 the ''winter eggs" of some other creatures. The 

 Professor was never able to discover any mode by 

 wdiich they were permitted to escape from the cells, 

 and in our colonies none were allowed to leave 

 their homes until the death of their parent, and 

 the decomposition of its cell had taken place; a 

 process which went on contemporaneously with the 

 growth of new cells, until the plant on which the 

 ccencecium was situated, rotted away, and then 



