530 THE REPRODUCTIVE FUNCTIONS. 



of independent existence. This mode of multipli- 

 cation, in its first period, corresponds exactly with 

 the production of a vegetable by buds ; and may 

 therefore be classed among the instances of gem- 

 miparous reproduction ; although at a later stage, 

 it differs from it in the complete detachment of the 

 offspring from the parent. That the parent and its 

 offspring have, while still united, distinct individual 

 existences appears from the curious fact that both 

 have been seen contending for the same worm, 

 each having seized and beginning to devour the 

 end nearest to it. Sometimes, also, new buds are 

 found sprouting from the sides of the young, before 

 it is itself detached from its parent ; thus exhibiting 

 three generations united together in this living 

 genealogical tree. Hydatids often, in like manner, 

 multiply by the evolution of buds from the surface. 

 Another plan of reproduction is that in which the 

 germs are developed in the interior of the animal, 

 assuming, at the earliest period when they become 

 animated, the form of the parent. In this case 

 they are termed gemmules instead of buds. This, 

 which has been termed the geimnuliparoiis mode of 

 reproduction, is exemplified in the Hydra, which, 

 besides giving rise to buds, as already described, 

 produce in their interior little gelatinous globules, 

 which, as the autumn advances, make their escape 

 from the parent, and remain undeveloped at the 

 bottom of the w^ater till the approach of spring : 

 but the animals thus produced do not grow to so 

 large a size as those which have sprung from buds. 

 Similar phenomena are presented by many of the 

 Infusoria. Among the Entozoa, we find that in 

 some species of Hydatids^ the young are developed 



