ALCYONIDIUM ELEGANS. 363 
ration in the interseptal spaces, or even in the stomach, and 
there hatched, as it were, into their lasting form. On emerging 
into the open ocean, they already resemble their full-grown 
relatives, the only difference consisting in a smaller number of 
tentacles and septa. The sea-anemones were consequently 
supposed to be viviparous, an error which more accurate obser- 
vations have fully refuted. 
Both the Ctenophora and the Sea-Anemones are ‘single or 
solitary, but the vast majority of the Actinozoa consist of 
aggregated animals attached to one another by lateral appen- 
Alcyonidium elegans. 
a. Branch to which the polypary is fixed. 6.¥Foot. c. Trunk. d. Pulyp-bearing branches, 
e. Polyps contracted within the foot. 
dages, or by their posterior extremity, and participating in a 
common life, while at the same time each member of the family 
enjoys its independent and individual existence. These com- 
pound polyps are all either Aleyonarians, in which each polyp 
is furnished with eight pinnately fringed tentacles, or Zoantha- 
rians, in which the tentacula are simple or variously modified, 
and generally disposed in multiples of five or six. The Alcyo- 
narians are again subdivided into the four families of the Alcyo- 
nid, the Pennatulidze, the Gorgonide, and the Tubiporide. 
The Alcyonidw vary much in form, being either lobed, 
