386 PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1/47. 



June in the afternoon on the slip of the horsetail, which he had placed in the 

 same glass with the clusters of the polypi, a small body, which, as he had everv 

 reason to believe was newly fixed on it. He then took out the slip of the horse- 

 tail, and he lodged it, with the small body that was on it, in another glass, after 

 which he examined that small body with his microscope, by the help of the ap- 

 paratus first above described. 



He then found that this body was much larger than any of the polypi of the 

 present sort, and of a figure very different from them, fig. 11. This made him 

 suppose that this body was not of the species of the polypi now before us, and 

 that it was not from any thing of this sort that he was to expect the production 

 of a cluster of this species of polypi. He resolved however to continue his ob- 

 servations on this minute body; which was oblong, and had a pedicle 3 or 4 times 

 longer than itself. 



It was on the 2d of June, at 5 in the evening, that he put it apart in a glass, 

 and at half an hour after 8 the same evening, he perceived that it began to split 

 from the top towards the bottom. When the separation was accomplished, each 

 of the 2 bodies formed by this division was nearly of the same shape as the first, 

 fig. 12. He then thought, judging still by analogy, that it would be some time 

 before either of these bodies would again be ready to divide; but a very little 

 after, he saw that they both became round, and that they disposed themselves 

 precisely as if they were again going to separate. This novelty drew all his atten- 

 tion, and it again came into his mind, that this body which he had but just con- 

 cluded not to contain the principle from which he was to expect the production 

 of one of the clusters he was looking after, might possibly still be the very thing 

 he was seeking for. 



He now imagined that perhaps these bodies would again divide and subdivide 

 themselves till they should come both to the shape and to the size of the polypi, 

 which he had seen on the clusters ; he however considered this idea but as a mere 

 conjecture. The 2 little bodies did in effect divide presently after; but the 4 

 which resulted from this division, fig. 1 3, had neither yet the form nor the mi- 

 nuteness of the polypi in question. He now wanted to know whether these 4 

 bodies would again proceed to divide without interruption; and he saw them a 

 little after again prepare for another division ; this division was completed at 20 

 minutes after 11, and at midnight the 8 bodies which were formed by this third 

 division were again almost completely divided. The cluster was then composed 

 of 1 6 polypi, and he from that moment no longer doubted, but these were clus- 

 tering polypi of the species last described. Among these l6 polypi, there were 

 some which had already the perfect form of those he had observed on the 

 more advanced xjlustene; ;and these; were such as were nearest to the origin of Ihe 

 branches,.! iKi 7/i;^ iiil .(i;I/I"lo dlOC i^iff ao . ; i;ji.!rj\. ^ 



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