20 Note on the Hejproduction of 



Such a record becomes, after a time, extremely useful for pur- 

 poses of reference. 



" I have often noticed that my specimens of A. mesemhry- 

 antliemum have, at times, accumulations of light pink-colored 

 granules, of from 0.025 inch., up to ahnost 0.05 inch, diameter, 

 in the interior of their tentacles, and that the creatures were at 

 these periods in a more or less contracted state, that is to say, 

 not swollen and semi-transparent as they usually are. I also 

 noticed that, when in this state, they exhibited an extraordinary 

 degree of inactivity, and would scarcely clutch at the food pre- 

 sented to them, which at other times they would seize and 

 devour with great avidity. Their urtricating power also seemed 

 to be deficient. 



" Having again observed the presence of these granules in 

 great quantity in the tentacles of one of my specimens, I 

 watched them carefully for some time, and remarked the fol- 

 lowing facts : — 



" The pink granules were seen to move up and down in the 

 tentacles, sometimes reaching the extreme tip, and then retreat- 

 ing towards the body of the animal and disappearing ; at other 

 times turning at once down into the cavity, at the point where 

 the base of the tentacle unites with the oval disc, but most fre- 

 quently passing down to the other extremity near the mouth, 

 and gradually disappearing. It at once struck me that these 

 might be young, so I nipped one of the tentacles with a pair of 

 forceps, when three of the granules were ejected from the orifice, 

 situated at the extremity of the tentacle, through which the 

 Actinia inhales the water by means of which it expands its body. 

 The tentacle so seized was at once withdrawn, and remained 

 contracted for some time. Two of the three granules, or, as 

 Sir John Dalyell calls them, ' corpuscula,' dropped to the bot- 

 tom of the tank, and were lost among the stones, but I captured 

 one by means of a tube, and placed it under the microscope. It 

 proved to be of a somewhat spherical form, and set with cilise 

 on its surface, by means of which it moved about in a lively 



