294 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



what I have seen may be seen by any one who chooses to 

 devote the requisite patience, I shall merely clear away cer- 

 tain theoretical obstructions which may screen the real facts. 

 In Dr Carpenter's summary of the views held by natm-al- 

 ists, we read that the ovarian capsules (the large vesicles 

 which rise from the stem of the polyjiidom) are improperly 

 designated ovarian, because " they have been shown by Pi-o- 

 fessor E. Forbes to be in reality metamorphosed branches." 

 The force of this objection escapes me. WoLff and Goethe have 

 shown the stamens and pistils to be metamorphosed leaves, 

 but no one denies them, on that account, to be reproductive 

 organs. The capsule in question is not a branch, but a cap- 

 sule, and the proof of its being an ovarian capsule is the fact 

 that m it ova are developed. Tliis, indeed, Dr Carpenter 

 denies, for he continues,* " These Medusa buds spring not 

 from ova, but from a detached portion of the medullary sub- 

 stance ;" and in a note he adds, "Although they are described 

 by Van Beneden as developed from ova, yet it is clear from 

 his own account that such is not the case ; and that what he 

 called the vitellus is continuous with the medullary substance 

 of the stem and branches of the zoophyte." Not having 

 seen Van Beneden's Mimoire, I am unable to say whether 

 that atbnirable naturahst has imperfectly described what he 

 has seen, or Dr Carpenter imperfectly comprehended what he 

 has read ; but I have no hesitation in asserting that direct 

 study of the phenomena will disclose the fact of the Medusa 

 being, at any rate, sometimes developed from ova, although 



* PrincipUs of Comparative Physiologi/, p. 552. 



