THE OVARIES. 861 



This was the first occasion on wliich I had an 

 opportunity of seeing the filiferous capsules, as these 

 bodies are called, for though I have described, in 

 previous parts of this volume, similar organs, the 

 actual observations so recorded were, in point of time, 

 subsequent to this. 



The presence of these aggregations of capsules 

 appears to be subject to much variation. In some 

 specimens of the Willsia that I examined, there were 

 several, perhaps five or six ; in many I could not by 

 strict searching, find more than one or two solitary 

 capsules, seemingly scattered in the substance of the 

 umbrella near the margin, yet shooting out the thread 

 on pressure, exactly like those aggregated in a vesicle. 

 But perhaps in these they may have been present, 

 though overlooked, in a situation where I afterwards 

 found them numerous in each specimen that I ex- 

 amined, viz. within the substance of the double 

 ovaries, and chiefly near their termination. In each 

 lobe there were many capsules, not arranged nor 

 gathered into vesicles, but apparently loose in the 

 yellow granular substance. But none of these had 

 developing ova ; only one that I examined had ova 

 in the form of transparent globules with a central clear 

 nucleus ; and that specimen I had destroyed before I 

 had detected this situation for the capsules. However, 

 in that specimen I know that, after pressure, I could 

 find no more than a single capsule, all over the 

 Medusa. 



These facts suggested the thought that possibly 

 these organs that look like ovaries may in some cases 

 be testes, and the filiferous capsules be organs of 

 I 2 



