186 ANATOMICAL DESCRIPTIONS. [December. 



two extremities, has the power of closing one, whilst the 

 other remains open, or keeping both open in order that 

 the eggs or young may be excluded, when the animal 

 contracts itself. Several naturalists have observed that 

 the young are excluded in a perfect state; but further 

 their observations have not extended. We owe to Dr. 

 Spix some interesting details on this subject; and my own 

 observations will throw, perhaps, some additional light 

 on it. I will still remark, that the ovaries, being greatly 

 multiplied in these animals, fill the cavity which contains 

 them. If one tears or separates an individual, to the 

 parts thus separated will adhere more or less ova, which, 

 at a certain period of their growth, will be productive of 

 young; and one ought to be well assured of the total ab- 

 sence of eggs, before adopting the opinion that parts of 

 these animals possess a reproductive faculty, as Vv^as main- 

 tained by the abbe Dicquemare, in the Journal de Phy- 

 sique, But I think that the experiments of this author de- 

 serve to be repeated, as this is a subject exceedingly in- 

 teresting. The ingenious memoir of Dr. Spix being 

 often cited by Messrs. Cuvier and Lamarck, induced me 

 to believe that the history of the Actinias was tolerably 

 complete; and hence, I neglected to examine the interior of 

 the large species which inhabit the West Indies. But in 

 consequence of the observations recorded above, there is 

 reason to believe that the Actinias described by Dr. Spix, 

 and those described by myself, have a similar conforma- 

 tion of the stomach. That the form and the disposition 

 of the exterior parts of the Actiniae, taken in succession, 

 present an approximation to the Madrepores, will be evi- 

 dent from an examination of the figures 2, 4, 6, 7, plate 



