ACTINIAKIA. 183 



in the water ; for the stomach is also a lung, and through the same 

 organ it ejects its young ! In short, the reproductive organs, the eggs, 

 and the larvae, are all connected with the tentacles or arms. In the 

 month of September the eggs are fecundated, and the larvae or embryos 

 developed. As Fredol says in " La Monde de la Mer," " These animals 

 bear their young, not upon their arms, but in their arms. The larvae 

 generally pass from the tentacula into the stomach, and are afterwards 

 ejected from the mouth along with the rejecta of their food a most 

 singular formation, in which the stomach breathes, and the mouth 

 serves the purposes of accouchement facts which it would be difficult 

 to believe on other than the most positive evidence." 



" The Daisy-like Anemones (Sagartia lettis Gosse), in the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens of Paris," says Fredol, " frequently throw up little 

 embryos, which are dispersed, and attach themselves to various parts of 

 the aquarium, and finally become miniature anemones exactly like the 

 parent. An actinia which had taken a very copious repast ejected a 

 portion of it about twenty-four hours later, and in the middle of the 

 ejected food were found thirty-eight young individuals." According 

 to Dalyell, an accouchement is here a fit of indigestion. 



The lower class of animals have, in fact, as the general basis of 

 their organization, a sac with a single opening, which is applied, as 

 we have seen, to a great variety of uses. It receives and rejects ; it 

 swallows and it vomits. The vomiting becomes necessary and habi- 

 tual the normal condition, in short, of the animal and is perhaps 

 a source of pleasure to it, for it is not a malady, but a function, and 

 even a function multiplied. In the sea anemone it expels the excre- 

 ment, and lays its eggs ; in others, as we have seen, it even serves 

 the purposes of respiration ; so that the animal flowers may probably 

 be said to enjoy their regular and periodical vomit. 



The sea anemones multiply their species in another manner. On 

 the edge of their base certain bud-like excrescences may often be ob- 

 served. These buds are by-and-by transformed into embryos, which 

 detach themselves from the mother, and soon become individuals in 

 all respects resembling her. This mode of reproduction greatly re- 

 sembles some of the vegetative processes. Another and very singular 

 mode of reproduction has been noted by Mr. Hogg in the case of 

 Actinia oeillet. Wishing to detach this anemone from the aquarium, 

 this gentleman used every effort to effect his purpose; but only 



