244 BULLETIN OF THE 
The larger part of the cavity of the male bell is taken up by an ovate, 
slightly opaque mass, which is a sac inflated with spermatozoa. This 
sac, like the sac which carries the ovum, fills almost the whole cavity of 
the bell. The distal pole of the sac is closed. 
Free spermatozoa are obtained in great quantities by simply pressing 
the body of the sac of the male gonophore, when they escape through 
the ruptures in the walls. The spermatozoa are the ordinary tailed 
variety with rounded, often pyriform heads, which are sometimes pro- 
longed into a pointed end opposite the tail. 
In the smaller female gonophores (PI. I. fig. 1), and also in some others 
of larger size, we recognize in the contained egg a transparent cell, ger- 
minative vesicle, in which is a dot, and sometimes within the last are one 
or more granules. The mass of the egg, however, is formed of a clear 
substance, through which there extends a protoplasmic network, impart- 
ing the appearance of a complex spongy mass of polygonal cells to the 
egg contents. This network has not been figured or specially described 
by others in the egg of Agalma, although it has been seen by Metschni- 
koff and figured by him in Lpzbulia, Stephanomia, and Halistemma. 
Although he neither figures nor specially describes this network in 
Agalma, Metschnikoff* may have referred to it when he says: “ Die 
vollkommern reifen membran- und kernlosen Eier [of Agalma] zeigen 
eine ahnliche Zusammensetzung wie die oben beschreibenen Eier der 
Epibulia aurantiaca und des Hippopodius gleba, unterscheiden 7 sich 
aber von ihnen durch ihre feinen réthlichgelbe Farbung, welches sie 
dem Vorhandensein eines diffusen Pigmentes verdanken.” I shall return 
to these “cells” later, in my account of the progress of the growth of 
the egg. 
Precisely how the spermatozoén comes in contact with the ovum, if 
the latter is placed in a closed sac, is somewhat of a puzzle. The germ- 
inative dot and vesicle disappear before this sac is ruptured. At about 
this time one or two globules (pg.) were observed on the egg. In my 
figure the nucleus and nucleolus have not disappeared. These changes 
go on so fast, that I am not confident that both are found together, and 
the globules may have appeared after the disappearance of dot and ves- 
icle. These globules seem to be the same as the “deformed spermato- 
zoa’’ described in another genus by P. E. Miiller. If the disappearance 
* Loc. cit., p. 49. 
+ The statement of Metschnikoff, p. 46 (quoted above), that the eggs of Hippopo- 
dius gleba ‘‘ mit einer freilich ausserst diinnen Membran tiberzogen sind,” would seem 
to be another difference. 
