POLYPES. 



CO 



eight teutacula : others florid, arid with twenty. They 

 are frequently disgorged along with the half-digested food, 

 thirty-eight appearing thus at a single litter. An em- 

 bryo extracted artificially from the amputated tip of a 

 tentaculum began to breed in fourteen months, and sur- 

 vived nearly five years.- Monstrosities by excess are not 

 uncommon among the young, one produced naturally 

 consisting of two perfect bodies ; and their parts, sustained 

 by a single base, exhibited embryos in the tentacula at 

 ten months, bred in twelve, and lived above five years. 

 While one body was gorged with food, the other con- 

 tinued ravenous." * 



"\~ It is interesting to see the Actinice fed ; and as they are 

 very voracious, they are rarely unwilling to gratify their 

 benefactors with a display of their swallowing powers. 

 Their natural prey consists of the smaller Mollusca, Anne- 

 lida, Star-fishes, Crustacea, and, in short, of any animals 

 which they are able to seize and to retain. The tentacles 

 have the same prehensile power as those of the Hydra, — a 

 power which depends on the presence of projectile barbed 

 weapons, ordinarly coiled in elastic cells. These organs 

 are found in inconceivable multitudes imbedded in the 

 tissues of the tentacles, of the lips, of the stomach, of the 

 frilled ovarian bands, and especially, in some species, in 

 long threads which are protruded from pores in the integu- 

 ment of the body. 



The structure of these weapons is as follows : — Each con- 

 sists of an oval or elliptical sac of transparent membrane, 

 within which is seen a thread coiled up, and in some 

 instances an oblong or lozenge- shaped chamber. At the 



* Eep. Er. Assoc. 1834 ; and Edin. New Phil. Journ. xvii. 



