THE POLYPUS. 193 



receives any tincture from any substance that is 

 caught and swallowed by its young. If the parent 

 swallows a red worm, which gives a tincture to 

 all its fluids, the young one partakes of the paren- 

 tal colour j but if the latter should seize upon the 

 same prey, the parent polypus is no way benefited 

 by the capture, but all the advantage remains 

 with the young one. 



But we are not to suppose that the parent is 

 capable of producing only one at a time ; several 

 young ones are thus seen at once, of different 

 sizes, growing from its body, some just budding 

 forth, others acquiring their perfect form, and 

 others come to sufficient maturity, and just ready 

 to drop from the original stem to which they had 

 been attached for several days. But what is more 

 extraordinary still, those young ones themselves 

 that continue attached to their parent, are seen 

 to bourgeon and propagate their own young ones 

 also, each holding the same dependence upon its 

 respective parent, and possessed of the same ad- 

 vantages, that have been already described in the 

 first connexion. Thus we see a surprising chain 

 of existence continued, and numbers of animals 

 naturally produced without any union of the sexes, 

 or other previous disposition of nature. 



This seems to be the most natural way by which 

 these insects are multiplied, their production from 

 the egg being not so common j and though some 

 of this kind are found with a little bladder attach- 

 ed to their bodies, which is supposed to be filled 

 with eggs which afterwards come to maturity, 

 yet the artificial method of propagating these ani- 



VOL. VI. N 



