204 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
the one increasing, the others getting smaller, in the direction of the 
centre. Moreover, they have many kinds of cells, which dispose 
themselves in their different relations with great regularity—their 
tentacula, which correspond with them, being arranged in circles 
radiating more or less from the centre. 
The stomach of the sea anemones fulfils a multitude of functions. 
At first, it is the digestive organ, and is unceasingly moistened by 
the water which it passes through it, takes what nourishment is in it, 
and ejects. The general cavity of the body corresponds with the 
visceral cavity, but is separated from it by a thin partition, and in the 
general cavity, which is divided into compartments by perpendicular 
partitions of membrane, the reproductive organs, the eggs, and the 
voung, are lodged, and are all connected with the tentacles or arms. 
In the month of September the eggs are fecundated, and the larva 
or embryos developed. As Frédol says in ‘‘ La Monde de la Mer,” 
“These animals bear their young, not upon their arms, but zz their 
arms. The larva generally pass from the tentacula (22, from the 
general cavity) into the stomach, and are afterwards ejected from the 
mouth along with the rejecta of their food, a most singular fact—the 
mouth serving the purposes of accouchement—a fact which it would 
be difficult to believe on other than the most positive evidence.” 
“The Daisy-like Anemone (Sagartia bellis, Gosse), in the Zoo- 
logical Gardens of Paris,” says Frédol, “frequently throws up young 
ones, which are dispersed, and attach themselves to various parts ot 
the aquarium, and finally become miniature anemones exactly like the 
parent. An actinia which had taken a very copious repast ejected a 
portion of it about twenty-four hours later, and in the middle of the 
ejected food were found thirty-eight young individuals.” According 
to Dalyell, an accouchement 1s here a fit of indigestion. 
The lower class of animals have, in fact, as the general basis of 
their organisation, a sac with a single opening, which is applied, as 
we have seen, to a great variety of uses. It receives and rejects; it 
swallows and it vomits. The vomiting becomes necessary and habi- 
tual—the normal condition, in short, of the animal—and is perhaps 
a source of pleasure to it, for it is not a malady, but a function. 
The sea anemones are also developed in another manner. On 
the edge of their base certain bud-like excrescences may often be 
observed. These buds are by-and-by transformed into embryos, 
which detach themselves from the parent form, and soon become 
individuals in all respects resembling it. This mode of reproduction 
greatly resembles some of the vegetative processes. Another and very 
singular mode of reproduction has been noted by Mr. Hogg in the 
