358 Dr. T. S. Wright on Hermaphrodite Reproduction 



The ova of C. hyoscella do not present, at any stage, a trace 

 of germinal vesicle or spot — objects which are so readily detected 

 in the ova of other polypoid zoophytes. 



The planuloid larvae resemble those of Medusa aurita ; but the 

 polyps into which they become developed approach more closely 

 to the Lucernarian type, in having a pedicle which is surrounded 

 by a gelatinous covering, and at its foot by a horny corallum, 

 which I have described and figured elsewhere *. 



The structure and position of the male organs are remarkable. 

 Attached to the inner surface of the ovarian membrane by deli- 

 cate pedicles, and projecting into the stomach, are numerous large 

 grape-like bodies of translucent "jelly,^' accompanied in many 

 cases by fringes of tentacles of the same substance (PI. XVIII. 

 fig. 1). The surfaces of the fii'st bodies are dotted with minute 

 papillse, and on the tentacles are found tubercles or thickenings 

 covered with similar papillse. These papillse are sperm-sacs 

 filled with spermatic cells and spermatozoa (fig. 4). Smaller 

 bodies, about the size of a hemp-seed, and specked with sperm- 

 sacs, also occur attached to various parts of the lining membrane 

 of the stomach, and even to that of the lips or long oral tenta- 

 cles, down to the very tips of those organs. 



The small Chrysaoras (about 4 inches in diameter) have no 

 ovarian bands in their pouches, which only contain masses of 

 the gi"ape-like bodies and tentacles before mentioned. These 

 tentacles are not homologous with the minute, hollow, cnido- 

 phorous or sting-cell-bearing tentacles found on the inner sur- 

 face of the ovarian membrane of Medusa aurita and Lucernaria 

 auricula ; they are simply, as are the grape-like bodies, pro- 

 longations of the endoderm and gelatinous layer of the ovarian 

 membrane. 



Although the testicles of Chrysaord are apparently not homo- 

 logous with those of other zoophytes, yet in reality they differ 

 but little from those of Actinia and Lucernaria. I have given, in 

 PI. XY III. fig. 2, a section of the testicle of Chrysaora, and in fig. 3, 

 of one of the same bodies in Actinia mesembryanthemum. In 

 Chrysaora, the thin endoderm [a) forms the distant sperm-sacs 

 which project from the surface. In Actinia, the thick endoderm 

 (a) also forms the more closely aggregated sperm-sacs, and fills 

 up the interstices between them. The testicle of Lucernaria, 

 again, resembles in shape and structure fig. 3 ; but the sperm- 

 sacs are so closely moulded together, that they form hexagonal 

 prisms divided from each other by exceedingly delicate walls of 

 endoderm. 



The sperm-sac of Chrysaora (fig. 4), as well as of other Stc- 



* Edinburgh New Phil. Journal for 18t59. 



