XXXVI INTRODUCTION. 



filamentary prolongations, which attacli themselves at 

 various points to the endocyst. 



There is nothing constant either in the number or 

 direction of these offsets ; but they are sometimes largely 

 developed, and look like so many 

 stays or supports to the alimentary 

 canal. The funicular cord (in such 

 a form as Bowerbankia, Woodcut, 

 fig. xiv.) attaches itself to the wall 

 of the cell immediately over the 

 perforated plate or septum, which 

 closes it below, and at the point 

 of attachment expands into a some- 

 what hemispherical granular mass. Septum in stem of 



Bowerbankia. p. Pore. 



From this a thread-like prolonga- 



tion passes off through the pore in the diaphragm, and 

 forms a link of communication with the rest of the 

 compound organism. In all the Ctenostomatous Polyzoa 

 the stem or stolon, along which the zooacia are dis- 

 tributed. is traversed by a cord (Woodcut, fig. xv. ec), 

 resembling in essential structure the funiculus; and 

 with this the polypides are connected by means of 

 the funicular threads just described*. But the stem 

 (or stolon) is not a continuous tube; it is divided 

 into numerous compartments, which are separated from 

 one another by a septum or diaphragm, perforated 

 in the centre like that of the cell (*, Woodcuts, figs. 

 xv. & xviii.). On each side of these septa the cord 

 usually dilates into a hemispherical mass (endosarcal 

 knot] ; and the two hemispheres, divided only by the 



* Ellis first noticed the funicular cowl in the stems of 

 Farre speaks of it as a " direct medium of communication between the 

 animals." 



