MEDUSA FROM BUDS. 



229 



than as young Medusa?, properly so called. When 

 emitted, the bud is of an oval shape, broader at one 

 end; and it constantly keeps its broader end in ad- 

 vance when moving. Internally they present a cavity. 

 They are at this stage bags of living jelly, clothed with 

 vibratile hairs. After a while the bud attaches itself 

 by its larger extremity, or apparent front, to any con- 

 venient object, as a stone or the stalk of one of the 

 larger sea-weeds, and this extremity henceforward be- 

 comes the base' on which all its future operations are 

 conducted. When it 

 has become fixed by 

 this base, an alteration 

 of form quickly com- 

 mences. The body 

 lengthens, and be- 

 comes wider upwards ; 

 and, at its upper ex- 

 tremity, is formed a ^^^^s VABIO a -?^ a . 

 mouth, which, at first, is of small size and naked, but 

 gradually becomes larger and surrounded by four promi- 

 nences. These prominences soon increase in length, and 

 change into long slender tentacula or feelers. After a few 

 days new tentacula make their appearance between the 

 old ones, and these organs, developed successively, one set 

 after the other, are gradually increased to the number of 

 twenty-eight or thirty. We have now the appearance of 

 an animal resembling one of the more simple Polypes, 

 such as the Hydra, a bell-shaped, gelatinous, bag-like 

 body, fixed to a stalk, highly contractile in every part, 

 and furnished with a mouth surrounded by tentacula. 



