The coenosarc may consist of a single elongated tube or stolon, forming the stem or axis of the cormus on which, usually, the appendages are arranged in groups termed cormidia; or it may take the form of a compact mass of ramifying, anastomosing tubes, in which case the cormus as a whole has a compact form and cormidia are not distinguishable.
It constitutes practically the exterior environment of the protoplasts, though it is ramifying through the interior of the plant.
In Hirudo and the Gnathobdellidae there is only one system of cavities which consist of four principal longitudinal trunks, of which the two lateral are contractile, which communicate with a network ramifying everywhere, even among the cells of the epidermis.
A further fact must be considered in deciding this question, which is the discovery of ramifying coelomic tubes, approaching close to, but not entering, the epidermis in the Polychaete Arenicola.
Almost without exception, they had their origin in small burial areas, the property of private persons or of families, gradually ramifying and receiving additions of one subterranean storey after another as each was required for interments.
