38 ZOOPHYTES. 
This margin is very thin, and in folds, mesentery-like, similar to that 
supporting a spermatic cord. ‘The ovules are en- 
veloped in an extension of it, and a narrow projec- 
tion of the same may be observed at the line of 
junction between the two series of clusters. Figure 
21 represents part of a transverse section enlarged, 
of the Actinia florida (p. 131), from near the base 
of the animal, examined after contraction in alcohol; 
the dotted portion represents the position of the ova- 
= \ rian clusters, which he between the lamelle, al- 
Hic ie though distinctly attached to the margin. The 
adjoining ovaries of different lamelle appear, in some instances, to 
coalesce. 
The ejection of the ovules appears to take place by the mouth. 
The extremity of the tentacles,* and supposed openings near the base 
of the same, have been stated to give them exit. But the existence of 
these openings is not proved ; and the punctures at the extremities of 
the tentacles are certainly too small for that purpose, in the majority 
of species, if not in all. The visceral cavity in which they are 
formed, communicates freely with the exterior waters through the 
stomach, affording them a direct and open passage. ‘The mouth is 
made the place of exit by Spix;t and Dalyell also asserts that, ac- 
cording to his frequent observations, they are ‘produced by the 
mouth.” Both ovules and living young, in the course of his inves- 
tigations, were often disgorged by the parent in numbers along with 
the half-digested food. 
As the tubular interior of the tentacles communicates freely with 
the interseptal spaces of the visceral cavity, it is no anomaly that 
ovules should be found within the tentacles, as stated by the last-men- 
tioned observer. By amputation, he frequently obtained them from 
these organs ; and one ovule thus procured, became a mature animal, 
began to “breed in fourteen months, and survived nearly five years.”{ 
Fig.20. Fig. 21. 
* Delle Chiaje, Bull. des Sciences Nat., xvii. 471. See farther on this subject, in 
Johnston’s Zoophytes, from whom this citation is made, p. 201. 
+ Carus Comp. Anat. Trans., ii. 308, pl. 1, figure 10, 
+ Dalyell states, that ‘fourteen animated beings” were produced at once by an Actinia 
equina, or mesembryanthemum, in his possession. Six were young with tentacles, and 
eight, ovules undeveloped. ‘ All were sufficiently vivacious, sometimes moving, some- 
times reposing.” In eight days the vibratile cilia disappeared fom the ovules, and they 
became stationary ; in eleven days incipient tentacles were distinguished in one ; and in 
