370 EVENINGS AT THE inCEOSCOPE. 



turned back, displaying more cleai'ly the peduncle 

 with its brilliant ovaries. These, too, are more turgid, 

 and the rosy points are seen projecting from their 

 intei'ior, and some of them even ready to fall. And 

 look ! here on the bottom of the glass are lying half-a- 

 dozen or more of similar purple points, whose rich 

 hue renders them plainly discernible, after a slight 

 searching, to the unassisted eye. I will collect one 

 or two with a capillary tube of glass, and submit them 

 to your examination under the microscope. 



You now discern that these bodies are perfectly 

 oval in form. One might, indeed, call them eggs, 

 for they perform the part of such organisms ; but that 

 these have soft walls, covered on their whole external 

 surface with fine vibratile cilia, by the action of which 

 they are endowed with the power of free locomotion. 

 We see them, in fact, gliding about the water of the 

 live-box imder view, with an even and somewhat 

 rapid motion, which appears to be guided by a veri- 

 table will. Under this power they are seen to be of a 

 soft rich lake-crimson hue, all over. 



These little gemmules have a somewhat romantic 

 history of their own. I am afraid that these we see 

 are too recent to afford us any help in tracing it, and 

 therefore I must be satisfied with telling you what I 

 have observed of it on former occasions. 



After the beautiful little Coral Jelly has swum 

 about a few days, the umbrella begins to turn outward 

 and backward, and to contract more and more, until 

 at length, it lies in shrivelled folds around the top, 

 leaving the whole peduncle exposed. Long before 

 this, it has lost its power of swimming, and lies help- 

 less on its side upon the bottom. Meanwhile the 



