ANNELIDS BUDDING, LIKE PLANTS. 65 



worms and one tail. It is as if a head were suddenly 

 to be developed out of your lumbar vertebrae, yet still 

 remain attached to the column, and thus produce a 

 double-headed monster, more fantastic than fable. Or 

 suppose you were to cut a caterpillar in half, fashion 

 a head for the tail half, and then fasten this head to 

 the cut end of the other half — this would give you an 

 image of the Syllis budding. But in some worms the 

 process does not stop here. What the mother did, the 

 child does, and you may see at last six worms forming 

 one continuous line, with only one tail for the six. 

 The tail indeed is the family inheritance ; but reversing 

 the laws of primogeniture, it always descends to the 

 youngest : like that elaborate display of baby linen 

 which was worked with such fondness for the first-born, 

 and has become in turns the costume of successive 

 pledges, as they appeared on this scene of life with a 

 constant diminendo of interest in all but parental eyes. 

 Such, in a few words, is the budding of Annelids. I 

 omit differences, and many curious details, only desiring 

 to fix the reader's attention on the cardinal fact. The 

 separation finally takes place, and then we perceive the 

 children and grandchildren are not quite the same as 

 their ancestor. The fact has not been observed at all 

 hitherto in the group of Annelids named Tahicola ; 

 yet two of my Terebellce gave me a sight of it. The 

 first died before the separation took place. The second, 

 after a day or two's captivity, separated itself from its 

 appendix of a baby, and seemed all the livelier for the 

 loss of a juvenile which had been literally in that con- 



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