192 HISTORY OF 



may be multiplied by cuttings, and this to a de- 

 gree of minuteness that exceeds even philosophi- 

 cal perseverance. 



With respect to such of this kind as are hatch- 

 ed from the egg, little curious can be added, as 

 it is a method of propagation so common to all 

 the tribes of insect nature ; but with regard to 

 such as are produced like buds from their parent 

 stem, or like cuttings from an original root, their 

 history requires a more detailed explanation. If 

 a polypus be carefully observed in summer, when 

 these animals are chiefly active, and more parti- 

 cularly prepared for propagation, it will be found 

 to bourgeon forth from different parts of its body 

 several tubercles or little knobs, which grow larger 

 and larger every day : after two or three days' 

 inspection, what at first appeared but a small ex- 

 crescence takes the figure of a small animal, en- 

 tirely resembling its parent, furnished with feelers, 

 a mouth, and all the apparatus for seizing and di- 

 gesting its prey. This little creature every day 

 becomes larger, like the parent, to which it con- 

 tinues attached j it spreads its arms to seize upon 

 whatever insect is proper for aliment, and devours 

 it for its own particular benefit : thus it is pos- 

 sessed of two sources of nourishment that which 

 it receives from the parent by the tail, and that 

 which it receives from its own industry by the 

 mouth. The food which these animals receive 

 often tinctures the whole body, and upon this 

 occasion the parent is often seen communicating 

 a part of its own fluids to that of its progeny that 

 grows upon it ; while, on the contrary, it never. 



