DKSCKIPTJON OF EPHYDAl'IA BLEMBINGfA. 85 



of the g-enimule : — " The gemmules are not eggs, but a sort of 

 cyst or capsule, out of which the same individual which built 

 them ultimately creeps through the pore." 



In a later publication (3) Carter describes the seed-like 

 bodies as being globular in shape, and consisting of a cori- 

 aceous membrane enclosing a number of delicate, transparent, 

 spherical cells, more or less filled with ovules and granular 

 matter, while an incrustation of gelatinous matter charged 

 with small spicules peculiar to the species surrounds the ex- 

 terior of the coriaceous membrane. " It has also been shown," 

 he adds, " that at an early period of development the spherical 

 masses, which we shall henceforth call ovi-bearing cells, are 

 polymorphic — identical, but for the ovules, mth the ordinary 

 sponge-cells — and surrounded by a layer of peculiar cells 

 equally polymorphic, which I have conjectured to be the chief 

 agents engaged in constructing the capsule." 



Again, in a later publication (4), he speaks of the "ova" — 

 preferring the term "ovum" to "seed-like body" — of Spon- 

 gilla as follows : — " At an early period of the ovum the 

 spherical cells, though already filled with the refractive 

 granules, are few in number and sub-polymorphic ; hence it 

 may be reasonably inferred that their multiplication as the 

 ovum increases in size is produced by fission ; the younger the 

 ovum the more polymorphic and resistent are these cells, wliile 

 the older it becomes the more they are attenuated, and the 

 more rapidly they burst by endosmose after liberation." 



In the year 1874 he further writes of the gemmules as 

 follows (5) : — " It may be a question whether the entire body 

 may not be the ovarium of a Spongozoon in the first place ; 

 while, as in hundreds of instances of the same kind in the 

 animal kingdom, all the other parts have perished, their 

 function having ended when sufficient nutriment had been 

 gathered and assimilated to support the reproductive elements 

 until they could do this for themselves." Further on he adds, 

 " It is an assemblage of ova which are at once developed to- 

 gether into a young Spongilla." 



In his final communication (6) on the gemmule, he "saews it 



