79 RAE VV ORD BOT IEE SLA. 
their moderation. The righteously indignant saint, pointing to the 
lower animals, exclaimed: “They are sober and temperate, and 
never eat more than their appetites demand.” Evidently the 
worthy father had not made the acquaintance of the nation of 
the polypes! 
It is generally said that animals with soft teeth have soft 
manners. The polypes have not only no teeth but no jaws ; their 
whole body is soft enough—they surely ought to be the very per- 
fection of gentleness. How little we can judge by appearances ! 
Sometimes the little worms swallowed by the hydra try to escape, 
a very natural instinct, whereupon the ravisher retains them by 
plunging one of his arms into his stomach, and holds his wriggling 
prey until the solvent fluids take effect. How wonderful a pro- 
vision which permits the worm to be dissolved but the arm left 
untouched ! When the end of the hydra is cut off, the polype is of 
course deprived of the bottom of his stomach ; heedless, however, 
of his loss, he still captures and swallows the animalcules, but 
deriving no nourishment—for the creatures simply pass out of the 
other end of the tube—the hydra eats and eats for ever; he 
becomes utterly insatiable, like M. de Crac’s horse or the cask of 
the Danaides. 
The food of the fresh-water hydra influences the colour of their 
bodies. The reddish matter of the wood-louse tints them pink ; 
when feeding on water-bugs they are green, and black when on 
tadpoles. The external surface of the digestive bag is frequently 
seen to be covered with tubercles which increase and lengthen, 
and gradually develop intg miniature polypes (/olypules). When 
they are able to provide for themselves, the point of attachment 
becomes attenuated and gives way. So the infant polype is born. 
Those buds which are produced in autumn are detached without 
reaching their full development, and falling to the bottom, are 
preserved in the water during winter. Upon the return of spring 
their development proceeds. 
While the young polype is still attached to the parent, upon 
its body a new little one is. often observed to grow. This may 
give birth to a third, and the third even to ‘a fourth! {>So that 
the parent hydra carries at the same time its son, its grandson, and 
its great-grandson—a living genealogical tree! 
