PLUMATELLID.E : ALCYONELLA. 



395 



Immediately after Tremblej's discovery, Reaumur and Bernard de 

 Jussieu found this animal in the neighbourhood of Paris, and de- 

 tected its ova, from which they saw the young issue. Reaumur's 

 account of the growth of the compound animal appears to me to 

 corroborate the opinion of the sameness of the Plumatella and 

 Alcyonella. He says that while the polypes a panache are still 

 very young, they increase in the same manner as the locomotive 



Fig. 73. 



polypes do, with one difference only, which it is essential to note, 

 since it explains clearly the formation of those polypidoms that 

 resemble plants. The tube of a newly evolved polype continues as 

 it were permanently grafted upon the tube of that which has given 

 birth to it : from the polype tube he has seen germinate by little 

 and little another which contained a nascent polype ; he has seen 

 this tube elongate itself, and the polype tenant at length show itself 

 outwards to follow out the destined tenor of its life. Scarcely had a 

 few days passed, until this again gave birth to a young one whose 



de petit corps spheriques de differentes grandeurs, blancs et transparens. J'ai seule- 

 ment soupqonne que ces petits corps etaient des ceufs, mais je n'ai pas eu occasion 

 d'examiner si ce soupqon etoit fonde, ou non." p. 219. 



