A LILLIPUTIAN MONSTER. 523 



ceeded also in turning a hydra inside out, and it was able to catch 

 food and digest it as well as before. The creature, however, 

 insisted on turning itself back again, and this was not what the 

 experimenter wished. He therefore passed a needle through the 

 body, near the mouth, and kept it there. 



The method of this Dutch naturalist was very ingenious. 

 Holding the hydra in a little water in the palm of his hand, he 

 induced it to swallow a small worm. He then took a bristle and 

 began to push against the base, working the end of the body 

 upward against the worm, and soon had the animal inverted. 

 Thrusting a needle through the base of the tentacles, he had 

 what he wanted. He says : " I have seen a polyp turned inside 

 out, which has eaten a small worm two days after the operation. 

 I have fed one in this state for more than two years, and it has 

 multiplied in that condition." 



Hydras have but low powers of locomotion, but still they can 

 move from place to place. When one, wishes to go upon its 

 travels it attaches itself to the surface of its support by a ten- 

 tacle, and then moves the disk up to the tentacle. In this way it 

 can get over about eight inches in twenty-four hours. It can, 

 however, take a longer journey by attaching itself to the shell of 

 a water snail, and thus travel in a few minutes a greater distance 

 than it could do in a day alone. It can also swim with the disk 

 floating on the surface of the water as if suspended. 



Although without eyes and a nervous system, the green hydra 

 is very sensitive to the light, and indeed all seem to be instantly 

 aware of a ray of sunlight. Would it not be curious if it was discov- 

 ered that the rays which affect sightless creatures, like the hydra, 

 are those about which so much investigation is being carried on ? 



Many more interesting things might be said about hydras, but 

 these must suffice. I will only add that the more I think about 

 them and the more I see of their habits, the more I realize the 

 truth of the words of Charles Bennet, of Geneva, in Switzerland, 

 about them : " We can only judge of things by comparison, and 

 have taken our ideas of animal life from the larger animals ; and 

 an animal we can cut and turn inside out, which we can cut 

 again and it still bears itself well, gives one a singular shock. 

 How many facts are ignored which will come one day to derange 

 our ideas of subjects which we think we understand ! At present 

 we just know enough to be aware that we should be surprised at 

 nothing." 



A PLANT of a new species Bauhinia magalandra is described as grow- 

 ing on the island of Trinidad, the flowers of which depend on bats for their 

 fertilization. The bat visits the flowers for the insects they harbor, and, in 

 trying to reach them, disturbs the stamens and shakes the pollen from them. 



