MEGAZOOIDAL INDIVIDUALS 



89 



the external walls of the lateral cylinders and by the base of 

 the central one. This would represent the stomach. The 

 hollow interiors of the surrounding cylinders would repre- 

 sent the intermesenteric chambers, and their contiguous 

 walls would form the principal septa radiating from the 

 oesophagus of the experimental megazooid (Fig. 25). 



But the illustration of the wax model must not be taken 

 too literally, for the compressed form and lateral Continuity 

 of the earliest megazooid of Sea-anemone type must have 

 evolved from the first development of a fertilised ovum of 

 some primitive Continuously Zooidal type. This ovum 

 must have had Continuously Zooidal potentialities, and 

 these must have been modified (if we may so express it) as 

 they strove to express themselves. In the evolution of the 



Fig. 25. — The evolutionary significance of the oesophagus (o), 

 stomach (■?), septa (sp), and intermesenteric chambers (ic), 

 of the Sea-anemone. 



Sea-anemone type of megazooid there has been no com- 

 pression of Continuously Zooidal structure already developed, 

 such as has been pictured above ; but, bearing this in mind, 

 we may be allowed to use the illustration. 



Consistently with the derivation of the Sea-anemone 

 which has been offered, and the identification of the inter- 

 mesenteric chambers with ancestral zooidal body-cavities, 

 we expect to find that when sexual organs are formed they 

 will reflect zooidal repetition. And we are not disap- 

 pointed. The reproductive organs are multiple, and are 

 placed on the face of the mesenteries. That is, each recog- 

 nisable " tube " of the megazooid produces its own sexual 

 organs, ani this fact, alone, indicates clearly that the 

 evolution of the Sea-anemone has been on the general lines 



