MODES OF GERMINATION. 469 



The production of the composite Actinozoa takes place 

 either by germination or fission. 



There are three kinds of germination, the basal, the 

 parietal, and the calicular. 



In the first-named the mode of increase is by means of 

 a rudimentary ccenosare* or common bond of connection, 

 which is put forth by the original polype, and on which 

 the young polype-buds are produced, like buds on a rose- 

 branch. Its products are very different, according as the 

 ccenosare remains soft, or deposits a calcareous tissue 

 (co&neuckyma) ; appears under the form of offshoots or 

 processes, or of stouter connecting stems ; or even spreads 

 out in several directions as a continuous horizontal ex- 

 pansion. 



In the second and commonest mode of germination, the 

 parietal, the corals produced are chiefly of a dendroid, or 

 tree-like form. As the word " parietal " indicates, the 

 buds are thrown off from the sides of the original polype, 

 and very often the process is repeated indefinitely. 



Calicular germination was a process belonging to the 

 primeval world. The primitive polype sent up from its 

 oral disc two or more similar buds, which, in their turn, 

 produced other young polypes; and so the process con- 

 tinued until an inverted pyramidal mass of considerable 

 size was produced, every part of which rested upon the 

 narrow base of the first budding polype. 



Of reproduction by fission it seems necessary only to 

 say, that it differs from germination chiefly in the fact 

 that the polypes thus produced by the process of self- 

 division resemble one another in organization, and often 



* A ccp.nosare is the common organized medium by which the separate poly- 

 pites of a compound organism are united together. 



