160 I'he Philippine Journal of Science 1915 



would undoubtedly add many interesting facts to our knowl- 

 edge of the finer structure of the Alcyonaria. A brief study 

 of sections stained with iron hasmatoxylin has brought out sev- 

 eral points of interest. The walls of the stomodseum are com- 

 posed of the usual columnar epithelium cells — ^very long and 

 slender and containing elongated, deeply staining nuclei so 

 arranged as to give the appearance of pseudo-stratified epithe- 

 lium. Scattered among these cells are large gland cells con- 

 taining a varying amount of deeply staining granules. These 

 cells are slender distally and often entirely filled in their outer 

 portions at least with the glandular products, and I have been 

 unable to make out any nucleus in the outer portion. Lying 

 between the epithelial layer and the mesoglcea is an irregular 

 layer made up of the large, broadly oval bases of the cells with 

 centrally placed, spherical, lightly staining nuclei, the mem- 

 brane and a minute central nucleolus of which are the only 

 parts which take the stain. It is very difficult to make out a 

 connection between this basal portion and the outer spindle- 

 shaped glandular portion, but I have been able to do so in a 

 number of cases. The granular material of the outer portion 

 of these cells takes an intense blue-black stain in Heidenhein's 

 iron hsematoxylin, and in a few instances I have found these 

 cells discharging their contents into the stomodseal cavity. 

 Ashworth^^ has noted gland cells in the stomodseal walls 

 of Xenia and explains their presence as being due to the 

 absence of mesenterial filaments and the consequent necessity 

 for the assumption of the digestive function by the stomodseum. 

 I have found these gland cells to be present, however, in the 

 stomodseal walls of Cornularia 7ninuta,^° Lithophytum rigidum, 

 and L. philippinensis ;^^ in Capnella ramosa and C. philippi- 

 nensis;^^ and even in the genera Lemnalia and Lemnalioides,^^ 

 where the mesenterial filaments are remarkably long, reaching 

 to the base of the colony. 



Scattered at more or less regular intervals in the inner por- 

 tion of the stomodseal wall are numerous short oval cells, each 

 containing an oval nematocyst about 0.009 millimeter in length 

 with a spirally coiled thread. The nematocyst seems to crowd 



"Xeniidffi, Willey's Zool. Res. (1900), 4, 68. 



^'' Light, S. F., Notes on Philippine Alcyonaria, part V: Cornularia 

 minuta sp. nov.. This Journal, Sec. D (1915), 10, No. 3. 

 "Ibid. (1915), 10, No. 3. 

 '''Ibid. (1913), 8, 435. 

 "Ibid. (1914), 9, 233. 



