Primitive Lasso-Throwers. 39 



a portion of the stomach, until it becomes constricted and 

 drops off, the tentacles meanwhile budding out from the 

 distal end, and a mouth-opening arising between them. In 

 the Hydra, the Actinia, and other polyps, and in truth in all 

 the lower animals, budding is simply due to an increase in 

 the growth and multiplication of cells at a special place on 

 the outside of the body. As in the vertebrates, man included, 

 the Hydra arises from an egg which, after fertilization, passes 

 through two stages, the germ consisting at first of two cell- 

 layers, but the sexes are not separate as in the marine Hy- 

 droids, which grow in colonies that may be either male or 

 female. 



Like some other animals of simple structure, the Hydra 

 is capable of reproducing to a most wonderful degree when 

 cut into pieces. Divided in two, each becomes a perfect 

 Hydra, and even when sliced into any number of thin rings 

 each ring will grow out a crown of tentacles. You may 

 split them into longitudinal strips and each strip will event- 

 ually become a well-shaped Hydra. Two individuals may 

 be fastened together by a horse-hair and in a short time they 

 will have become like Siamese twins, but there will never 

 arise the slightest disagreement between them. A Hydra 

 turned inside out will readily adapt itself to the change, and 

 in a few days will be able to swallow and digest bits of meat, 

 its former stomach-lining having now taken upon itself the 

 condition of skin. 



Hydra fusca is our simplest lasso-thrower, and the only 

 one to be found in fresh waters in this country. Such a 

 wonderful and deadly weapon is his, that it is easy to 

 understand how his numerous relatives in the wide ocean 

 have made good use of the weapon with which nature has 

 provided them, and secured, under all kinds of shapes and 

 forms, homes and resting-places throughout the vast waste 

 of waters. From the Arctic to the Tropics, and from the 

 shallow seaside pools at low tide to the fathomless abysses 

 of the ocean, we meet the lasso-throwers. Now in the form 



