144 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



In sexual reproduction tlie ovum, after being fer- 

 tilized, passes through the usual stages of segmenta- 

 tion. The young are discharged through the mouth 

 of the parent, and may be so discharged in any stage 

 either as ova, or, after fertilization, as morulce, or, in 

 case the entire development has been carried on in the 

 mesenteric chambers, as fully formed young, differing 

 from their parent only in size. 



The anemones live occasionally to a great age, one 

 being named by Dr. Wilson {'' Science for All,^' vol. iv. 

 p. 156) as in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, 

 ■which was first obtained by Sir John Dalyell from the 

 Firth of Forth in the year 1828. 



The development of the anemones was first fully 

 described by Dr. Cobbold in the " Annals of Natural 

 History" for February, 1853. The most recent work 

 in English dealing with the anatomy of the Malaco- 

 dermata, is the contribution by Prof. Hertwig to the 

 Challenger Eeports. This contains a summary in 

 English of the book published in Germany, in 1879, 

 by the brothers Professors O. and R. Hertwig, " Die 

 Actinien." The most recent English work dealing 

 with the Selerodermata is the contribution to the 

 Challenger Reports of Mr. Moseley, and a revision of 

 the classification of the same sub-order by Prof. Martin 

 Duncan, published in vol. xviii. of the Journal of the 

 Linnasan Society. The " Actinologia Britannica^' of the 

 Rev. P. H. Gosse, referred to on page 14, still remains 

 the only book in English dealing with the whole of the 

 British Zoantharia. Recently, however. Dr. Andres 

 has published in Italian a contribution dealing with 

 the Malacodermata, in which all the British species of 

 that sub-order are described. His treatise forms Part 



