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, perhaps to speak more properly, a variety of bud, which is extremely curious. In looking at our specimens we noticed brown oval bodies in the cells; these, on careful examination, presented the appearance of the sketch. The centre is dark, covered with a network, which is more conspicuous in the lighter coloured 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 stationary germs, and they bear some resemblance to what are called the "winter eggs" of some other creatures. The Professor 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 contemporaneously with the growth of new cells, until the plant on which the _coenoecium_ was situated, rotted away, and then unfortunately the whole concern went to pieces. [Illustration: Plumatella repens on a leaf.] The tubes of the _Plumatella_, and of most other Polyzoa, are composed of two coats, called respectively _endocyst_ 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, strengthened 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 technically called _invagination_, and is readily seen in new and transparent cells.