DR. ALLMAN ON THE ANAl’OMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF CORDYLOPHORA. 375 
coloured by the characteristic secretion of the endoderm ; other tentacula soon 
shoot forth behind those first formed, and the little Cordylophora resembles in all 
respects, except in size, a full-grown stem with a solitary polype. Its solitary condi- 
tion however is not long retained; prolongations have already been sent out from its 
base ; these attach themselves to the body on which it grows, and constitute the 
system of prostrate adherent tubes, while gemmce are soon formed from these tubes 
and from the free stem, and convert the young single-polyped zoophyte into the adult 
many-poly ped Cordylophora*. 
But besides the ovigerous capsules, a second kind (fig. 24) is developed on certain 
branches. These differ neither in situation nor in visible organization from the 
capsules destined to contain ova ; their component sacs, internal diverticulum, and 
ramified canals entirely correspond with those of the ovigerous capsules ; but instead 
of containing ova, they are filled with a turbid fluid, in the midst of which innu- 
merable minute corpuscles may be seen to exhibit a peculiar vibratory movement 
occasionally visible under slight pressure through the transparent walls, and the 
same motion is continued in these corpuscles after they are liberated from the 
containing capsule and spread over the field of the microscope. 
That these capsules represent a male system with spermatozoa, there cannot be 
the least doubt. When liberated from the capsule, the moving bodies show them- 
selves under two different forms ; they are either oval corpuscles with an excessively 
delicate caudal filament (fig. 24 c), or they are minute spherical cells (fig. 24 h) with 
a similar caudal filament (by whose undulations the cells are moved about through 
the surrounding fluid), and enclosing a nucleus-like corpuscle, with which the filament 
appears to be connected. The former would seem to be the spermatozoa in their 
free and fully developed condition, while the latter appear to be “vesicles of evolu- 
tion,” in which the body of the spermatozoon is still confined, the tail alone being 
disengaged. It still remains difficult to explain the mode in which the spermatozoa 
gain access to the ova. In some cases I have succeeded, under slight pressure, 
in forcing out the contents through a minute orifice which made its appearance in 
the summit of the capsule, but this orifice, notwithstanding its definite position, was 
probably the result of rupture, and I could not detect anything corresponding to it 
in the ovigerous capsules. It would perhaps be more in accordance with analogy to 
suppose that the spermatozoa make their way into the cavity of the diverticulum, 
that they are thus conveyed into that of the coenosarc, and ultimately reach the ova 
through the diverticulum of the ovigerous capsules. The male and female capsules 
appear to be always borne on different stems. 
* See an interesting paper by the Rev. Thomas Hinges, entitled ‘ Further Notes on British Zoophytes, with 
Descriptions of New Species,’ published in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, March 1853 . 
3 D 
MDCCCLTII. 
