REMARKABLE MODE OF MULTIPLICATION. 317 



is by the head, however, that such motion is inva- 

 riably initiated. The tail is always in the rear, never 

 in the van. 



One of the most interesting phenomena presented 

 by these worms is their capability of developing and 

 detaching progeny by a kind of sprouting from the 

 posterior end of their bodies. The part where this 

 wonderful process takes place is invariably the same, 

 the new animal being always formed by a vegetative 

 growth of the antepenultimate segment, that is to 

 say, from the segment immediately preceding the 

 terminal one. This reproductive segment may be 

 observed at certain periods to become slightly swollen, 

 and evidently the seat of increased vital action : and it 



/ 



short time is sufficient to reveal that it is employed 

 in manufacturing a young worm, which is soon seen 

 growing from the hinder extremity of its parent, from 

 which, when sufficiently complete, it detaches itself. 

 If the head or anterior segment of the species be 

 characterized by eye- specks, antennae, a proboscis, or 

 branchiae, these are developed in the offspring or off- 

 shoot, so as to be completely recognizable before the 

 final separation takes place ; so that we have the 

 strange spectacle of two animals, one growing by its 

 head from the tail of the other (PL VI. fig. 3). And 

 very frequently this is by no means the extent of the 

 prodigy ; for it very generally happens that as soon as 

 the lineaments of the head of the first young one are 

 established, the reproductive segment of the parent 

 resumes its procreative function, and a second off- 

 spring is developed, intervening between the one first 

 formed and the original Annelide ; nay, sometimes a 



