112 SIDNEY F. HARMER. 
in consequence of the degeneration of the polypides. This is 
a case of a phenomenon repeatedly noticed, in which an 
epidemic of degeneration attacks all the polypides of a colony 
simultaneously. In a large number of cases this probably has 
no permanently injurious effect on the colony, as new polypide 
buds are developed in all the zowcia, even while many of the 
parts of the degenerating polypides are still distinctly recog- 
nisable. Iam convinced that the simultaneous degeneration 
of the polypides is often responsible for the degeneration of the 
embryo; and in some of the above-mentioned cases in which a 
young bud occurs in the fertile zocecium, the embryo would 
probably have ultimately become involved in the brown body 
This is borne out by examination of a colony, ‘51 mm. long by 
‘37 mm. broad, in which all the polypides had moderately 
recently degenerated. Polypide-buds are being developed to 
replace them, and an advanced bud is present in the fertile 
zoecium. ‘This bud possesses an egg, although eggs could not 
be found in any of the other zocecia. The inference is that the 
egg was destined to replace the (degenerating) embryo present 
in the same zocecium. 
Should the buds become functional polypides with sufficient 
rapidity, I see no reason why the embryo should not survive. 
It is possible, on the contrary, that the occurrence of a young 
polypide-bud together with a degenerating polypide in the 
fertile zowcium (Stage C) always implies that the embryo has 
already commenced to degenerate. I am induced by the study 
of one series of sections to think that this is not necessarily the 
case. The fertile zocecium contains a polypide which is clearly 
young. The brown body is large; near the suspensor it is 
distinctly old, while at the opposite end it is as distinctly 
newly formed. ‘The embryo and its accessories are normal in 
character. This case suggests a fusion of the original fertile 
brown body with a new one formed by the degeneration of the 
fertile polypide. A new polypide has, however, been de- 
veloped in the same zoccium, and the health of the embryo 
does not seem to have been in any way affected by these 
changes. 
