188 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 
their original arrangement, for they endeavoured to return 
to it, and being at times successful in their efforts, they were 
again found im statu quo; but as this did not suit the fancy 
of the operator, he fell upon means of preventing them from 
undoing his work, and after a short trial of this novel con- 
dition, they seemed quite satisfied with it, devoured their 
prey as greedily as ever, yielded young ones as before from 
their polype-bearing bodies, lived to a good old age, and 
died surrounded by their offspring to the fourth or fifth 
generation. 
“Rerum natura ppsgnam magis quam in minimis tota est.” 
ce Plin. Nat. Hist. 
~“ Ayt thou proportion’d to the Hydra’s length, 
Who by his wounds received augmented strength ? 
He raised a hundred hissing heads in air ; 
When one I lopp’d, up sprang a dreadful pair ; 
By his wounds fertile, and with slaughter strong, 
Singly I quell’d him, and stretch’d dead along.”——Oved. Metam. 
1. Hypra vrripis, the Green Hydra. (Plate XII. 
fig. 39.) 
Hab. In ponds and ditches, on aquatic plants. 
Baker states, that the arms of the green Hydra are so short, 
that it cannot clasp round a small worm, but can only pinch 
