HYDRA. 177 
soon after he had the satisfaction of hearing from him that 
_ they had arrived alive; that he had examined them, and 
hesitated not to rank them among animals; and this put an 
end to M. Trembley’s doubts. 
Though he ceased to doubt as to their animal nature, 
he ceased not to carry on his observations, particularly as 
to their mode of multiplication. He thought he ascertained 
that this is sometimes by eggs, which, when emitted from 
the body of the polype in autumn, sink into the mud, in 
which they le during the winter, to be transformed into 
polypes when the vernal sun shines forth on them. He 
observed also, on several occasions, that a polype became 
divided into two, that at first there was a stricture about 
the middle of the body, that the division took place at this 
stricture, and that, before separating, the tail part had 
acquired tentacula, and was thus prepared to support itself 
as independent. ar more frequently they multiplied by 
buds, as we have already said; and he gives a particular 
account of his observations as to this mode of multiplication. 
At first there was a little gemmule on the cylindrical body 
of the green polype, chiefly observable by its darker colour. 
In a day or two it had projected from the parent polype 
about a line; in a few days, when it had still more increased 
N 
