\ 
ment of science are among the most remarkable that have been 
made, has observed that a species of Actinia on the coast of 
Scotland, instead of waiting to be cut up into bits in order to 
raise a progeny, actually separates fragments for the purpose from 
“its base, by the ordinary process of growth. “Small irregular 
fragments of no determinate shape detaching themselves from 
the base, gradually become perfect Actiniz ; in the course of a 
year, seventy were thus detached from its basal margin, which 
‘consequently became ragged and disfigured. The external or- 
gans were gradually developed, and in three weeks the young 
Actiniz were perfected from the rudest and most misshapen frag- 
ments.”* We are at once reminded of the bulbs that grow from 
certain plants, and drop off to sprout up, bud and flower. In- 
stead of proving the vegetable character of the polyp, these facts 
only establish the identity of certain laws of life in both kingdoms, 
17. Reproduction in polyps, we thus perceive, takes place both 
by means of ova: and buds ; tats is, these animals are ‘both ovipa- 
rous and genvm 
I. Ova. The ova tier (ty Soci in the sides of the an- 
imal; and grow from the. outer surface;—or (2) they form 
ftom internal lamelle, and escape through the mouth.—In some 
instances, as distinguished by M: van Beneden, (3) an ovum ap- 
pearing at first to be single, undergoes 4 subdivision in its yolk, 
and becomes a number of distict ovules, each producing separate 
young. The ova in (1), are sometimes spoken of as bulbs. 
The ova sometimes produce the young before they leave the 
polyp, and the animals are then in fact viviparous. But as the 
external waters have free admission to the interior, this may be 
considered but an accident in the oviparous mode. 
II. Buds. Buds (1) develop young which are rasa that 
is, remain attached to the parent :—in other cases (2) they devel- 
p young which separate when mature, or are caducous + some- 
times (3) the buds proceed at intervals from an elongating shoot 
called a stolon : again, (4) they sometimes separate as bulbs before 
the young are developed : again, (5) these separating bulbs, before 
development, may contain ova.t This last process is analogous 
* Cited from a recent letter to the writer. 
t ‘This last fact was first distinguished by M. van Beneden.—Scee his elaborate 
Memoirs on the Tubularidz in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Brussels ; 
also, Aan. . Mag. Nat. Hist., xv, 346.. 
