104 



off the heads of (his new hydra, seven others grew 

 up, and each of these cut off became a polypus. 



u 1 cut a polypus cross-ways into t\vo parts ; put 

 them together again, and they re-united. I put the. 

 posterior part of one, to the anterior of another, they 

 soon united into one polypus, which ate the next day 

 and soon put forth young ones, from each part. - 



u As the body of a pohpus has but one gut, I 

 have 'turned it inside out. The inside soon after be- 

 came the outside, and it fed and multiplied as before. 

 They do not copulate at all, but each polypus has 

 the faculty of multiplying itself^ yea, before it is 

 severed from its parent. I have seen a polypus while 

 giowing out of the side of its parent, bring forth 

 yotmg oiri>s ; nay, and those young ones themselves 

 Jiave also brought forth others." 



Cut a polypus across, and the same day the ante- 

 rior end lengthens itself, creeps and eats. The lower 

 part which has no head, gets one, forms itself a 

 mouth, and puts forth arms. It is all one, in what- 

 ever part the body is cut, cut it into three or four part* 

 and each becomes a complete polypus. 



Cut one lengthways, slitting it quite in two, so as 

 to form two half pipes. It is not long before the 

 1wo sides of them close, they begin at the posterior 

 ] art, and close upward, till each half pipe becomes a 

 whole one. All this is done in less than au hour, and 

 the polypus produced from each of those halves, dif- 

 fers jiotJnug -from the iirst, only it lias fewer arms. 

 But these too are soon supplied ! 



But as strange animals as ail polypi are, the clus. 

 tering polypi are more strange than thu rest. One 

 species- of iht-se are of a bell-like form. Their ante, 

 rior part, in which is their mouth, is hollowed in- 

 ward, and resembles the open end of a bell. Their 

 other extremity ends jn a point, to which is fixed a 

 stalk op pedicle. The polypus when it is ready to 

 divide, first draws in its lij)S into the cavity ; it then 

 by degrees grows round, and presently after divides 

 itself into two other round bodies. These in a few 



