The gastrulation of the amphioxus is especially interesting because this lowest and oldest of all the vertebrates is of the highest significance in connection with the evolution of the vertebrate stem, and therefore with that of man (compare Chapters XVI and XVII). Just as the comparative anatomist traces the most elaborate features in the structures of the various classes of vertebrates to divergent development from this simple primitive vertebrate, so comparative embryology traces the various secondary forms of vertebrate gastrulation to the simple, primary formation of the germinal layers in the amphioxus. Although this formation, as distinguished from the cenogenetic modifications of the vertebrate, may on the whole be regarded as palingenetic, it is nevertheless different in some features from the quite primitive gastrulation such as we have, for instance, in the _Monoxenia_ (Fig. 29) and the _Sagitta._ Hatschek rightly observes that the segmentation of the ovum in the amphioxus is not strictly equal, but almost equal, and approaches the unequal. The difference in size between the two groups of cells continues to be very noticeable in the further course of the segmentation; the smaller animal cells of the upper hemisphere divide more quickly than the larger vegetal cells of the lower (Fig. 38 _A, B_). Hence the blastoderm, which forms the single-layer wall of the globular blastula at the end of the cleavage-process, does not consist of homogeneous cells of equal size, as in the Sagitta and the Monoxenia; the cells of the upper half of the blastoderm (the mother-cells of the ectoderm) are more numerous and smaller, and the cells of the lower half (the mother-cells of the entoderm) less numerous and larger. Moreover, the segmentation-cavity of the blastula (Fig. 38 _C, h_) is not quite globular, but forms a flattened spheroid with unequal poles of its vertical axis. While the blastula is being folded into a cup at the vegetal pole of its axis, the difference in the size of the blastodermic cells increases (Fig. 38 _D, E_); it is most conspicuous when the invagination is complete and the segmentation-cavity has disappeared (Fig. 38 _F_). The larger vegetal cells of the entoderm are richer in granules, and so darker than the smaller and lighter animal cells of the ectoderm. Fig.38 Gastrulation of the amphioxus. Fig. 38—Gastrulation of the amphioxus, from _ Hatschek_ (vertical section through the axis of the ovum). _A, B, C_ three stages in the formation of the blastula; _D, E_ curving of the blastula; _F_ complete gastrula. _h_ segmentation-cavity. _g_ primitive gut-cavity.