552 ALFEED 0. HADDON. 



the Marine Ectoprocta. If this be the case, it is probable 

 that the mode of gemmation in this Polyzoan will be found to 

 resemble that in the latter rather than that in the former. 



The Gymnolaematous Ectoprocta present us with the great- 

 est difficulty, and it must be remembered that we have here to 

 deal with a highly specialised and at the same time degraded 

 group — the degradation being mainly caused by the sessile 

 habits and by the secretion of a strong protective covering, 

 resulting not only in the loss or diminution of certain organs, 

 such as a muscular body-wall, nervous system, sense organs, 

 excretory ogans, &c., but also in the simplication of certain 

 tissues. This is especially noticeable in the body-wall and in 

 the mesoblastic tissues generally, the tendency apparently 

 being for these tissues to lose their distinctive cellular character 

 and to form syncytia or even plasmodia ; for the vagrant protean 

 funiculus is more comparable with a plasmodium, in which 

 the fusiform cells described by Joliet are immersed, than with 

 an ordinary cellular tissue. 



In many forms of this group both the endocyst and the 

 funiculus appear to take part in the gemmation. I would 

 again draw attention to the marginal buds of Flustra (PI. 

 XXXVIII, fig. 16) and Bugula flabellata (PL XXXVIII, 

 fig. 17), in the latter of which the ovary lies in such close 

 contact with the fundus of the developing stomach that it 

 suggests something more than a secondary attachment. The 

 ovary (shown by Huxley to be developed from the funiculus in 

 Bugula avicularia), as is well known, passes ready formed 

 into some buds imbedded in certain funicular tissue. Might 

 we not assume that the stomach tissue also has a similar 

 origin ? Indeed, some still earlier buds exhibit a very close 

 connection between the stomach and the funiculus. In most 

 of the forms enumerated on p. 523 I have seen the stomach 

 intimately united with the funiculus in early buds, and, 

 though I have not yet been able to prove that the stomach 

 mass does absolutely and entirely arise from the funicular 

 tissue, yet the evidence in favour of that view is, to my mind, 

 very strong. 



