Q4 HISTORY Or THE 



mals is much more expeditious, and equally cer- 

 tain : it is indifferent whether one of them be cut 

 into ten, or ten hundred parts, each becomes as 

 perfect an animal as that which was originally 

 divided ; but it must be observed, that the smaller 

 the part which is separated from the rest, the 

 longer it will be in coming .to maturity, or in 

 assuming its perfect form. It would be endless 

 to recount the many experiments that have been 

 , tried upon this philosophical prodigy : the animal 

 has been twisted and turned into all manner of 

 shapes ; it has been turned inside out, it has been 

 cut in every division; yet still it continued to 

 move, its parts adapted themselves again to each 

 other, and in a short time it became as voracious 

 and industrious as before. 



Besides these kinds mentioned by Mr Trembley, 

 there are various others which have been lately 

 discovered by the vigilance of succeeding ob- 

 servers, and some of these so strongly resemble a 

 flowering vegetable in their forms, that they have 

 been mistaken by many naturalists for such. Mi- 

 Hughes, the author of the Natural History of 

 Barbadoes, has described a species of this animal, 

 but has mistaken its nature, and called it a sensi- 

 tive flowering plant ; he observed it to take re- 

 fuge in the holes of rocks, and, when undisturbed, 

 to spread forth a number of ramifications, each 

 terminated by a flowery petal, which shrunk at 

 the approach of the hand, and withdrew into the 

 hole from whence before it had been seen to issue. 

 This plant, however, was no other than an animal 

 of the polypus kind, which is not only to be found 



