organs or gonads are borne on the mesenteries, the germinal cells being derived from the inner layer or endoderm.
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| Fig. 1.—Diagrammatic longitudinal section of an Anthozoan zooid. | Fig. 2.—1, Portion of epithelium from the tentacle of an Actinian, showing three supporting cells and one sense cell (sc); 2, a cnidoblast with enclosed nematocyst from the same specimen; 3 and 4 two forms of gland cell from the stomodaeum; 5a, 5b, epithelio-muscular cells from the tentacle in different states of contraction; 5c, an epithelio-muscular cell from the endoderm, containing a symbiotic zooxanthella; 6, a ganglion cell from the ectoderm of the peristome. (After O. and R. Hertwig.) | ||||
| m, | Mesentery. | s, | Stoma. | ||
| t, | Tentacles. | lm, | Longitudinal muscle. | ||
| st, | Stomodaeum. | d, | Diagonal Muscle. | ||
| sc, | Sulcus. | go, | Gonads. | ||
| r, | Rotteken’s muscle. | ||||
In common with all Coelenterate animals, the walls of the columnar body and also the tentacles and peristome of Actinia are composed of three layers of tissue. The external layer, or ectoderm, is made up of cells, and contains also muscular and nervous elements. The preponderating elements of the ectodermic layer are elongated columnar cells, each containing a nucleus, and bearing cilia at their free extremities. Packed in among these are gland cells, sense cells, and cnidoblasts. The last-named are specially numerous on the tentacles and on some other regions of the body, and produce the well-known “thread cells,” or nematocysts, so characteristic of the Coelentera. The inner layer or endoderm is also a cellular layer, and is chiefly made up of columnar cells, each bearing a cilium at its free extremity and terminating internally in a long muscular fibre. Such cells, made up of epithelial and muscular components, are known as epithelio-muscular or myo-epithelial cells. In Actinians the epithelio-muscular cells of the endoderm are crowded with yellow spherical bodies, which are unicellular plants or Algae, living symbiotically in the tissues of the zooid. The endoderm contains in addition gland cells and nervous elements. The middle layer or mesogloea is not originally a cellular layer, but a gelatinoid structureless substance, secreted by the two cellular layers. In the course of development, however, cells from the ectoderm and endoderm may migrate into it. In Actinia equina the mesogloea consists of fine fibres imbedded in a homogeneous matrix, and between the fibres are minute branched or spindle-shaped cells. For further details of the structure of Actinians, the reader should consult the work of O. and R. Hertwig.
The Anthozoa are divisible into two sub-classes, sharply marked off from one another by definite anatomical characters. These are the Alcyonaria and the Zoantharia. To the first-named belong the precious red coral and its allies, the sea-fans or Gorgoniae, to the second belong the white or Madreporarian corals.
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| Fig. 3.—An expanded Alcyonarian zooid, showing the mouth surrounded by eight pinnate tentacles. st, Stomodaeum in the centre of the transparent body; m, mesenteries; asm, asulcar mesenteries; B, spicules, enlarged. |
Alcyonaria.—In this sub-class the zooid (fig. 3) has very constant anatomical characters, differing in some important respects from the Actinian zooid, which has been taken as a type. There is only one ciliated groove, the sulcus, in the stomodaeum. There are always eight tentacles, which are hollow and fringed on their sides, with hollow projections or pinnae; and always eight mesenteries, all of which are complete, i.e. inserted on the stomodaeum. The mesenteries are provided with well-developed longitudinal retractor muscles, supported on longitudinal folds or plaits of the mesogloea, so that in cross-section they have a branched appearance. These muscle-banners, as they are called, have a highly characteristic arrangement; they are all situated on those faces of the mesenteries which look towards the sulcus (fig. 4). Each mesentery has a filament; but two of them, namely, the pair farthest from the sulcus, are longer than the rest, and have a different form of filament. It has been shown that these asulcar filaments are derived from the ectoderm, the remainder from the endoderm. The only exceptions to this structure are found in the arrested or modified zooids, which occur in many of the colonial Alcyonaria. In these the tentacles are stunted or suppressed and the mesenteries are ill-developed, but the sulcus is unusually large and has long cilia. Such modified zooids are called siphonozooids, their function being to drive currents of fluid through the canal-systems of the colonies to which they belong. With very few exceptions a calcareous skeleton is present in all Alcyonaria; it usually consists of spicules of carbonate of lime, each spicule being formed within an ectodermic cell (fig. 3, B). Most commonly the spicule-forming cells pass out of the ectoderm and are imbedded in the mesogloea, where they may remain separate from one another or may be fused together to form a strong mass. In addition to the spicular skeleton an organic horny skeleton is frequently present, either in the form of a horny external investment (Cornularia), or an internal axis (Gorgonia), or it may form a matrix in which spicules are imbedded (Keroeides, Meistodes).
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| Fig. 4.—Transverse section of an Alcyonarian zooid. mm, Mesenteries; mb, muscle banners; sc, sulcus; st, stomodaeum. |
Nearly all the Alcyonaria are colonial. Four solitary species have been described, viz. Haimea funebris and H. hyalina, Hartea elegans, and Monoxenia Darwinii; but it is doubtful whether these are not the young forms of colonies. For the present the solitary forms may be placed in a grade, Protal-cyonacea, and the colonial forms may be grouped in another grade, Synalcyonacea. Every Alcyonarian colony is developed by budding from a single parent zooid. The buds are not direct outgrowths of the body-wall, but are formed on the courses of hollow outgrowths of the base or body-wall, called solenia. These form a more or less complicated canal system, lined by endoderm, and communicating with the cavities of the zooids. The most simple form of budding is found in the genus Cornularia, in which the mother zooid gives off from its base one or more simple radiciform outgrowths. Each outgrowth contains a single tube or solenium, and at a longer or shorter distance from the mother zooid a daughter zooid is formed as a bud. This gives off new outgrowths, and these, branching and anastomosing with one another, may form a network, adhering to stones, corals, or other objects, from which
