XXII. On the ciliated groove (siphonoglyphe) in the stomodæum of the alcyonarians

Abstract

Many years ago the distinguished naturalist Gosse (2) described two ciliated grooves in the stomach of the Sea Anemones, the function of which is to keep up the circula­tion of sea-water whilst the animals are retracted, and which he called the gonidial canals (“demicanaux” of Hollard (8) and “schlund-rinnen” of the German writers). These grooves are situated on what are now known as the dorsal and ventral sides of the stomach, and their presence has been confirmed and their histology more thoroughly investigated by R. and O. Hertwig in their great work ‘Die Actinien’ (7).