116 THE YOUNG 
fibres, pull the creature in and out of its 
cell, and at the i^art where the stomach 
ends, and the intestine turns round, is at- 
tached a long flexible rope, called the 
funiculus, which goes to the bottom of the 
cell. The passage of the food down to the 
stomach, its digestion, and the eviction of 
the residue, can all be watched ; and when 
a large morsel is swallowed, the spectacle 
is curious in the extreme. 
One day a polyzoon caught a large 
rotifer, {B. vulgai'is,) which, with several 
others of its tribe, had been walking over 
the coencecium, and swimming amongst 
the tentacles, as if unconscious of danger. 
All of a sudden it went down the whirl- 
pool leading to the mouth, was rolled up 
by a process that could not be traced, and 
without an instant's loss of time, was seen 
shooting down in rapid descent to the gulf 
below, where it looked a potato-sliai)ed 
mass, utterly destitute of its characteristic 
living form. Having been made into a 
bolus, the unhappy rotifer, who never 
gave the faintest sign of vitality, was 
tossed up and down from the top to the 
bottom of the stomach, jnst as a billiard- 
ball might be thrown from the top to the 
bottom of a stocking. This process went 
on for hours, the ball gradually diminish- 
ing in size, until at last it was lost in the 
general brown mass with which the stom- 
ach was filled. The bottom of the stom- 
ach seems well supplied with muscular 
fibres, to cause the constrictions by which 
this work is chiefly performed, and by 
keeping a colony for a month or two, "l 
had many opportunities of seeing my 
Polyzoa at their meals. 
When alarmed the tentacles were 
quickly retracted, but although these 
creatures are said to dislike the light, and 
usually keep away from it in their native 
haunts, my specimens had no objection to 
come out in a strong illumination, and 
seemed perfectly at their ease. They 
were indeed most amiable creatures, and 
never failed to display their charms to 
admiring visitors, who rewarded them 
with unmeasured praise. Twice I had an 
opportunity of observing an action I can- 
not explain, except by supposing either 
that the tentacles of Phimatella Imye some 
poisonous action, or that rotifers are sus- 
-cei^^tible of fear. On these occasions the 
-common rotifer was the subject of the 
experiment. First one and then another 
got among the tentacles, and on escaping 
seemed very ]:»oorly. One fellow was, to 
borrow a phrase from Professor Thomas 
Sayers, "completely doubled up," and 
two or three seconds — long periods in a 
rotifer's life— elapsed before he came to 
himself again. 
By keeping a colony of the Phimatella 
for a wew weeks in "a glass trough, and 
occasionally supplying them with fresh 
water from an aquarium, containing the 
SCIENTIST. 
animalcules, they are easily preserved in < 
good health, and as they develop fresh 
cells, the process of growth may be 
readily watched. This production of fresh 
individuals enlarges the parent colony, | 
but could not be the means of founding a 
new one, which is accomplished by two 
other modes. A little way down the cells 
Professor Allman discovered an ovary at- 
tached to the internal tube by a short 
peduncle, or foot stalk, while a testis or 
male generative organ is attached to the 
funiculus, or "little rope," we have al- 
ready described. 
July and August are the best times for 
observing the ovaries, and they are most 
conspicuous in the genera Alcyonella and 
Paludicella. True eggs are developed in 
the ovaries in a manner resembling this 
mode of multiplication in other animals ; 
but there is another kind of egg, or, per- 
haps to speak more properly, a variety of 
bud, which is extremely curious. In look- 
ing at our specimens we noticed brown 
oval bodies in the cells. The centre is dark 
covered with a net-work, which is more 
conspicuous in the lighter colored and 
more transparent margins. These curious 
bodies are produced from the funiculus, 
and act as reserves of propagative force, as 
they are not hatched or developed until 
they get out and find themselves exposed 
to appropriate circumstances. Professor 
Allman names them Statoblasts, or station- 
ary germs, and they bear some resem- 
blance to what are called the "winter 
eggs " of some other creatures. The Pro- 
fessor was never able to discover any 
mode by which they were permitted to 
escape from the cells, and in our colonies 
none were allowed to leave their homes 
until the death of their parent, and the 
decomposition of its cell had taken place ; 
a process which went on contemporane- 
ously with the growth of new cells, until 
the plant on which the ccenoecium was 
situated, rotted away, and then unfortu- 
nately the whole concern went to pieces. 
The tubes of the Flumatella, and of most 
other Polyzoa, are composed of two coats, 
called respectively endocijst and ectocyst, 
that is, " inner case " and " outer case." 
The first is vitally endowed, and exhibits 
vessels and muscular fibres. The second 
or outer case is thrown off by the first. It 
is a parchment-like substance, strength- 
ened by the adhesion of dirt particles, and 
does not appear to exercise any vital 
functions, but to be merely a covering for 
protection. The inner layer terminates 
in the neck of the bag before described, 
as exserted when the polypide comes out, 
and inverted when it goes in. This mode 
of making a case or sheath by inversion 
of a bag is teGlmiGallj called invagination, 
and is readily seen in new and transparent 
cells 
The movement of eversion, or coming 
