Enclosed in the clear purplish-grey jelly, in the midst of scattered lighter specks, we see several star-like figures of bright hues, in which yellow and red are predominant; the symmetrical arrangement of which pleases the eye, and reminds us of some ornamental pattern designed by human art. Each star is composed of several (three, seven, ten or more) pear-shaped animals, with their smaller ends meeting in the centre around a common orifice, from which a current of water is discharged. Now this assemblage of animals bears evidence of progressive development. Some time ago a tiny egg was discharged from a parent _Botryllus_, which presently produced a little active tadpole-like larva, called a "spinule." This swam actively by means of its wriggling tail; but at length it settled head downward on this piece of sea-weed. Immediately the head adhered, by an effused cement, to its support; the tail now gradually disappeared; and the round head, in the midst of a mass of jelly-like cement, began to display two orifices on its surface. It soon assumed a pear-like shape, and thus the first _Botryllus_ was formed. From the side of this "pear," another was developed by gemmation, and a third on the opposite side; the smaller ends of all were in contact, and the orifices of these extremities began to merge into one; while the large ends diverged. A fourth and a fifth "pear" were successively produced in the same mode, until a star or "system" was formed. Meanwhile the surrounding mass of living jelly had been commensurately enlarging, and a new _Botryllus_, separate from the other star, had been produced in the jelly, which was the commencing point of a second system; and thus, by degrees, the compound mass of systems has grown to its present state of development. [Illustration: BOTRYLLUS. _a_, portion of one system and of a mass, on _Phyllophora rubens_; _b_, an egg _c_, spinule; _d_, the same, attached; _e_, the tail absorbed; _f_, the young _Botryllus_. All magnified.] This process has been one of time: the adhesion of the "spinule" took place in about sixteen hours after its escape from the egg. The appearance of the two orifices was when the little animal was four days old; and by the end of a week a second "pear" had budded. The attainment of the present condition may have occupied about six months. Nay; time has been no element in this development; it is prochronic development; it is the development of creation, not of nature.