Observations on British Zoophytes and Protozoa. 275 



suspended or floating in an erect position, or slowly swims 

 about in large curves by the continuous and very active 

 motion of its tentacles. This animal may be called the 

 homomorph, amongst the Protozoa, of Sipunculus Bernhardt. 

 I have never been able to satisfy myself as to its mode of 

 feeding, though portions of matter are occasionally seen 

 entangled amongst the tentacles, and apparently pressed in 

 contact with the substance of the proboscis. 



In the sketch of this animal appended to my notice of 

 1859, 1 figured several globular bodies within the sac, which 

 my friend, M. Claparede, to whom I showed it, had not 

 observed ; and on further observation, I was led to consider 

 the figure erroneous. In March last, however, the Ophryo- 

 dendra (PI. XL fig. 1) again contained these bodies, and by 

 a somewhat "meddlesome midwifery," I was enabled to 

 force them from the sacs, and to find that they were living 

 young, from four to nine in number. 



The young thus obtained consist of ovoid bodies of higher 

 refractive structure than the body of the parent, and contain 

 olive-brown corpuscles, shaped like the chlorophyll-granules 

 of Hydra viridis. At a later stage, when the wrinkled 

 trunk of the parent hung lax and dead, the young larvse 

 assumed a pyriform shape, flattened on their inferior surface 

 (PI. XI. fig. 2). This surface was also marked with longitu- 

 dinal striae, carrying short, soft, slowly- moving cilia or pro- 

 cesses. Their natural mode of extrusion was not observed ; 

 but several families of them were found, each enveloped in 

 a soft gelatinous ball, and attached to the Sertidaria and 

 other bodies. Single individuals were seen slowly moving 

 on the zoophyte, and others attached were putting forth the 

 rudiments of the proboscis. The proboscis was at first finely 

 molecular, like the contents of the sac, unwrinkled and non- 

 contractile. A few tentacles were presently put forth from 

 its summit (fig. 3), and it gradually assumed the structure 

 of that of the adult. 



The body of Ophryodendron frequently bears fusiform 

 bodies, from one to four in number, which I have already 

 described, and which appear to be gemmss. 



VOL. II. 



