218 CYANEA CAPILLATA. 



by an exercise of its urticating powers, send some 

 unhappy swimmer smarting and trembling to his 

 home. 



While the Medusae column proceeds to throw off 

 from its uppermost part living segments of itself, 

 its lower half, or stem, continues to grow, but does 

 not become ringed, for as the budding process ceases, 

 the last formed cup rests on newly-formed tentacula ! 

 Then again stolens are thrown out, on which young 

 Medusae are formed, as before described. 



Contemplating such mysteries as these, the mind 

 becomes bewildered and the spirits humbled. 



4 Imagination wastes its strength in vain, 

 And fancy tries and turns within itself, 

 Struck with the amazing depths of Deity.' 



The above m&y be deemed one of the most interest- 

 ing zoological theories that has ever been promul- 

 gated in modern times. It was founded by Chamisso, 

 and termed the ' alternation of generation/ but was 

 much improved and extended by the researches of 

 Steenstrup. Professor Owen, however, had pre- 

 viously reduced the theory to a fixed and definite 

 scientific form, under the title of ' Parthenogenesis.' 

 Another author, not viewing the Medusae in the 

 various stages of development as an. aggregation of 

 individuals, ' in the same sense that one of the higher 

 animals is an individual/ proposes that each Medusa 

 be considered as an individual, developed into so 

 many ' zooids.' 



