In Medusæ it is a common thing to find that in certain definite places of
the gastro-vascular system two endodermal surfaces that were primarily
separated by a space have come together and fused into a single lamella
or plate. Such a structure is called indifferently a cathammal plate,
an endodermal lamella, or a vascular lamella. In the adult animal the
vascular lamellæ are by virtue of their very nature formations “with a
past.” They are scaffolding left in the completed structure, giving us
clues as to the way in which that structure was brought about; and in the
Cubomedusæ, whose development is as yet unknown, they therefore afford an
unusually interesting subject for special consideration.
The vascular lamellæ that are found in Charybdea and Tripedalia may for
convenience be described as forming two systems, the internal and the
marginal. The former comprises the endodermal fusions that separate the
stomach from the stomach pockets (except for the spaces of communication
left free, the gastric ostia) and those that separate the stomach pockets
from one another. The marginal system consists of the lamella that
connects _endoderm_ of the gastro-vascular system with _ectoderm_ of
the surface in a ring all around the bell margin, and with it also the
vascular lamella of the sensory niche, which has already been referred
to in the general description of Charybdea. The lamellæ of the internal
system have been described by previous writers, and especially by Claus
in his paper on Charybdea, but they are still in need of comprehensive
and clear treatment. The lamellæ of the margin and of the sensory niche
have also been described by Claus, but not thoroughly or with entire
accuracy, nor did he recognize the vascular lamellæ of the sensory niche
as originally a part of the lamellæ of the margin. This last was first
determined by H. V. Wilson upon specimens of Chiropsalmus quadrumanus
obtained at Beaufort, North Carolina. Professor Wilson’s unpublished
notes on Chiropsalmus were very kindly placed in my hands, and so far
as the vascular lamellæ are concerned my own work is only a confirmation
and amplification of his, since Charybdea and Tripedalia in this respect
agree with Chiropsalmus.
The vascular lamellæ of the internal system are the most prominent and
morphologically the most important. They comprise the four vertical
strips of fusion that separate the four stomach pockets in the interradii
(_ivl_ in the figures of the series of cross-sections of Charybdea and
Tripedalia, Nos. 6-15 and 21-29), and four curved horizontal cross-pieces
at the top of these which separate the stomach from the stomach pockets,
and would make the separation complete did they not leave in each
perradius a free space between their ends, which makes possible the
gastric ostia.
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