TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 87 
observed no difference between the embryos of the Cyanea and Med. capillata? 
(Stinger) after they lost their respective colours (lilac and tawny) and became 
digitate. Both alike make little cruises and rotate, before they fix themselves: both 
affect the form of a fist with one or two fingers extended, and revert, by contraction, 
to the octagon form, But in the Stinger alone have I seen the germs remaining, for 
some time after exclusion, in the same mudberry clusters in which they had occupied 
the sinuses of the plicate ovary. I have this year, 1846, collected the ova of a very 
different Medusa. These were, at first sight, pyriform like the others; but after- 
wards proved to be (what I have never discovered in any other species) much com- 
pressed, and, from a swinging fashion in swimming, were often seen edgeways, and 
looked like little Planarie, They are now as decided Hydre as the others, and can 
just be discerned as such with the naked eye. I have only seen the ova of two 
other Pulmogrades ; both very minute and of the Moorish-arch form: ail agree in 
being pyriform, locomotive (ciliomotive ?) and peristaltic, which last habit I conceive 
to be the means of steering. 
Embryogeny of Ciliogrades—Of the true Berée I can say very little: I am pretty 
sure I have had their ova two or three times, looking very like those of Cydippe 
pileus, but never succeeded in hatching them. However small the Berde, and I 
sometimes meet with them as small as a pin’s head, it differs in no respect but size 
from the adult, having eight ciliamina (ciliary arches), But C. pileus (a much com- 
moner animal at Birkenhead) has afforded me repeated opportunities of watching 
the whole process, though with many interruptions, One first sees a little darkish 
but reflecting spherule in the centre of a proportionably very large, transparent, and 
scarcely visible pellicle: it very soon looks granular like boiled sago within and 
without ; then shows a few obscure cilia—enlarges at one end, and becomes accu- 
rately acorn-shaped, with only four arches of cilia, which are, towards the base (or 
cup of the acorn), immensely large in proportion, much-curved, and move very slowly 
in general. The mouth is /arge, and apparently dinear instead of the convolvulus 
form of the adult, and seems to take in certain granular bodies which float within the 
pellicle. The two very long trains are extended even in ovo, where there is ample 
room for “little master” to play about (it is a nursery rather than a shell) ; the trains 
are gathered into a knotty bunch instead of a cork-screw circus, appear to have no 
side filaments, and certainly have no internal sheath for their reception. After 
‘ escaping from the shell, they exhibit greater activity, with startling alternations of 
extreme, crawling slowness during the extension of the trains, and the most fantastic 
capers after suddenly retracting the latter. These creatures are just visible to the 
naked eye, and as they are not easy to keep alive, I have never seen the next step 
of their metamorphosis, but have often met with Cydippes of the size of hempseed in 
the normal form, with convolvulus mouths, eight ciliamina, fringed trains retractile 
into pockets, and all the airs and graces of the full-grown individuals. 
On the Quasi-osseous System of Acalephe. By Joun Price, M.A. 
The author described minutely the tessellated structure of the polygonal central 
patch in the great brown Stinger (Medusa capillata?), and noticed the degree of 
analogy which this structure may be thought to offer to the osseous arrangements in 
higher grades of life. He offered suggestions as to the respiratory and nutritious 
processes in Rhizostoma, and presented some ground for doubt regarding the true 
nature of the supposed eyes of Acalephz. 
The author appended notices regarding Berde (ovata?), especially its internal 
contractions, and recommended the examination of the structure of this singular 
Acaleph, by microscopic investigation of the process of natural decay, “which in 
Acalephz is apt to take place symmetrically, so that the anatomy is laid bare bit by 
bit, whilst vitality remains almost unimpaired in the very last shred of the frame.” 
[In the letter to Professor Owen which accompanied these communications, other 
interesting remarks and queries occur.] 
On the Cultivation of Silk in England. By Mrs. Wurtsy. 
A letter was received from Mrs. Whitby, of Newlands near Lymington, Hants, 
wherein she stated to the Association the encouraging result of an experiment, begun 
