170 
ZOOPHYTA ASTEROIDA. 
The polypes are placed in this external fleshy crust, which, 
indeed, is but a continuation of their tunic, and serves as a 
connecting medium to the whole assemblage. Their position 
in it is marked by an orifice on the surface distinguished by its 
being cut into eight rays in a starred fashion, and which open 
when the superior portion of the body is forced outwards. * 
This exsertile portion, in a state of expansion, resembles a cy- 
lindrical bladder or nipple crowned with a fringe formed bv the 
eight short thick pectinated tentacula which encircle the 
mouth. (Plate xxvi. Fig. 1.) Under this orifice w 7 e perceive 
the stomach, readily distinguished through the transparent 
parietes by its opacity, occupying the centre of the cylinder, 
and itself of a cylindrical figure. The space between it and 
the outer envelopes is divided into eight equal compartments 
or cells by as many thin ligamentous septa, which, originat- 
ing in the labial rim, between the bases of the tentacula, de- 
scend through the cylinder, attached on the one side to the 
inner tunic of the body, and on the other to the stomach, which 
is by this means suspended and retained in its position. The 
canals or cells formed by these septa communicate freely with 
the tubulous tentacula above ; and they have a still wider com- 
munication with the abdominal cavity underneath the stomach, 
into which we may observe the septa are also continued for a 
certain way, adhering still to the tunic, but free on their inner 
edges, for now instead of septa, they form only the same num- 
ber of plaits of more or less prominence and width. Attached 
to them, and indeed forming a part of them, there are an equal 
number of twisted somewhat glandular filaments, which, origi- 
nating round a small aperture in the base of the stomach, 
appear to be suspended in the cavity, gradually losing them- 
selves in its depth. By most authors these have been mis- 
taken for ovaries, *f* but though this assignation of function to 
* See on this part of zoophytology Milne-Edwards Memoires “ sur les Alcy- 
ons” in Ann. des Sc. Nat. part. Zool. iv. p. 333, &c. an. 1835 : and in the 2de 
edit, of Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. p. 465. 
f Cuvier, Reg. Anim. iii. p. 309, 310, 319. Lamarck gives us Savigny’s 
opinion in the following passage : “ Les huit intestins d’un Polype semblent de 
deux sortes, car ils ne se ressemblent pas tous par la forme, ni vraisemblable- 
ment par les fonctions. Deux d’entre eux descendent distinctement jusque au 
fond du corps du Polype, et n’arrivent a aucun ovaire. Les six autres, plus 
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