422 REPRODUCTION OF THE CORONET. 



At length, on the 4th of January, about two 

 months after the disappearance of the animals, I was 

 surprised to see issuing from each tube, a new fan- 

 disk, the filaments very delicate, of a translucent 

 white, and about a quarter of an inch long, curled at 

 their tips. Each formed a nearly flat disk, about as 

 large as a sixpence, divided into two semi-circles, but 

 without any appearance of the spiral volutes. There 

 were about twenty-two filaments in each moiety : and 

 the bases of all formed a ring apparently as large as 

 the old neck, but this part I could not see distinctly. 

 The disks of the two animals agreed precisely in ap- 

 pearance with each other. 



It is manifest that each of the tenants of these 

 tubes, — full-grown animals, — has undergone first the 

 loss, and then the reproduction of the tentacular disk. 

 Perhaps the accident which befel the first specimen 

 that fell under my notice, may be one to which the 

 species is not unexposed naturally ; and hence it is a 

 merciful provision that an organ so easily lost, yet so 

 essential, should be replaceable. Dr. Williams, of- 

 Swansea, in his able 'Keport on the British Anne- 

 lida' (1852), does not notice this power in SaheUa, 

 and seems (p. 247) to doubt its existence in the whole 

 class. 



THE CORYNACTIS. 



The spring tides of the new moon in the middle of 

 October this year, were lower than I had ever seen 

 at Ilfracombe, a circumstance the more fortunate for 

 me that it was the last opportunity I had of exam- 



