30 



a shapeless mass, and by protoplasmic flowing changed their 

 shape through an endless variety of forms, and moved slowly 

 from place to place. Thin pseudopodia were sent out along 

 which the substance of the organism flowed, and by the 

 bi-eaking of the connecting band divided into two. The 

 fragments became smaller and smaller until no longer recog- 

 nizable. These abnormal larvae remained alive for six weeks 

 after v/hich no trace of them remained. 



VIII. BUDDING IN THE LARVAE - tIETAGENSIS. - 



Contrary to Haeckel's statement that in the group of 

 jelly-fish which he calls the"Trachomedusae" metagenesis 

 doesnot occur, in Gonionema , which falls into that group, 

 metagensis does take place. Ey a form of non-sexual multi- 

 plication diffei'ent from any which has previously been de- 

 scribed for any member of the Hy dromedusae , an intermediate 

 process of reproduction is introduced into the life-history 

 of Gonionema . whereby a large munber of adults --are produced 

 from a single egg. 



Asexual multiplication in the larvae of Scyphomedix- 

 sae has been known since 1841, when Sars saw and described 

 the formation of buds in a scyphistoma of uncertain identi- 

 ty, but regarded as either an Aurelia or a Cyanea . Since 



