472 THE AX ATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 



gitudinal section of the anterior end of the body of an adult Synapta digitata. a, 

 perisotna with the longitudinal muscles and radial nerve-trunks ; 6, calcareous 

 plates wliioh surround the gullet; c. tentacular can i Is ; c?, oesophagus ; e, radiat- 

 ing muscles oftlie pharynx ; g, divided ends of the ciicum-oral nerve; h. circular 

 ambulacral vessel with "Polian vesicle ; i, cavity of a longitudinally divided tenta- 

 cle, into which a tentacular canal opens; k, generative coeca ; /, mesentery with 

 the dorsal l)lood-vessel ; ;«, "auditory vesicle" on the radial nerve ; 11. longitudi- 

 nal muscles; 0. tentacular pedicels; p, oral disk. F, calcareous plate and anchor 

 of Synapta inhcerens. 



these are attached to the anal circlet, and five to the circutn- 

 oesophageal circlet. Until, however, it has been shown that 

 the circular ambulacral vessel incloses the cloaca as well as 

 the oesophagus — which is highly improbable — it is justifiable 

 to assume that the anus of Rhopalodvna is really, as in the 

 Crinoidea^ interradial in position. 



The development of the Holothuridea is extremely in- 

 structive. Yelk-division gives rise to a vesicular morula, 

 which undergoes invagination, and becomes converted into 

 an oval ciliated gastrula. The opening of invagination be- 

 comes the anus, while a mouth and gullet are produced by an 

 invagination of the ectoderm, near the anterior end of the 

 body, which unites with and opens into the blind end of the 

 endadermal sac, or archenteron. The completed alimentary 

 canal is thus composed of a gullet, a rounded stomach, and an 

 intestine ; and the ciha of the ectoderm usually become re- 

 stricted to a single band, bent upon itself, thougli its general 

 direction is transverse to the axis of the body (Fig. 135, B ; 

 Fig. 136, A). At a subsequent period, this single band may 

 be replaced by a series of hoops of cilia (Fig. 136, B). Ac- 

 cording to Kowalewsky,' the embryo of Pentavta doUolum 

 does not becomg ciliated at all, and that of PsoUnus passes 

 from the condition in which the cilia are dispersed ov^er the 

 surface directly into one in which it is provided with five 

 zones of cilia, between two of which the mouth opens. In 

 this condition it singularly resembles the embryo of Coyna- 

 tula. And, indeed, in the further advanced condition of the 

 PsoUnus, the oral end of the body, surrounded by triangular 

 calcareous plates, within which the tentacles take their orio-in, 

 has a striking resemblance to the oral end of the young Pen- 

 tacrinoid larva of Coniatula. 



The peritoneal cavity and the ambulacral vessels take their 

 origin,'^ in a very remarkable manner, from the archenteron, 



» " M6m. de I'Aca'^l. de St.-Petersbourff," 18fi8. 



8 Se/'. Metschnikotf, " Studien nher die Enbwickelung der EchinodeiTnen und 

 Nemertinen" ('' Mem. de TAcad. de St.-Petersbonrg," xiv., 18fi9) ; and espe- 

 cially the very satisfactory menioir of Salenka, " Zur Entwickelung der Holo- 

 thurien" {Zeitschri/t fur wise. Zoologie, 1876). 



