IGO SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



was liere performed in a direct and general manner. 

 They have not suspected that Eeproduction takes place 

 in the Anemone, much in the same way as in the fresh- 

 water Polype — not in any special and j3er?7ia7ie?ii appa- 

 ratus of organs, such as ovaiy, oviduct, &c., but by a tem- 

 porary specialisation of the general envelope, including 

 an accumidation of germ-cells and sperm-cells. I am aware 

 that speciiil organs called ovaries are described in all books, 

 and that some writers describe an oviduct — which only 

 exists in their imagination, for no duct of any kind is found. 

 Of course, no philosophical a priori conclusion could be 

 permitted to stand up in contradiction to observed fact ; if 

 the organs are there, it is of no use deductively establishing 

 their non-existence. But are they there ? 



When I first commenced the investigation of Anemones, 

 I had no reason whatever to doubt the statement so eene- 

 rally and confidently made, that the convoluted hands were 

 the organs in question. (Plate III., fig. 3, represents a con- 

 voluted band attached to the border of the membrane called 

 the mesentery ; the grape-like mass is the ovary.) At the 

 end of the first week my doubts began. These convoluted 

 bands contained no trace of ova, but instead thereof they 

 contained vast quantities of those thread capsxdes which I 

 then believed to be urticating cells. This was the last j)lace 

 in the world where one might expect to find offensive wea- 

 pons ; and misled by the belief in these cells, I was led to 

 question the function of the convoluted bands. Questioning, 

 of course, meant somethmg more than supine doubt. I began 

 on the 14th May to examine closely into the evidence, and 



