230 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



by adherent or free gemmules. Deceived by these 

 appearances, naturalists would lose the trace of their 

 origin, and isolate them from the Agaricas or the 

 Acalephae ; but let the conditions be changed, and 

 the mycelium ceasing to appertain to the Mucedinse 

 will produce an agaricus, and the polype will en- 

 gender a medusa.* Now, if the mushroom is 

 nothing more than the floral organ of the mycelium, 

 we are quite justified in concurring with the opinion 

 enounced by M. Dujardin, that a medusa is the 

 animal flower of a polype. 



Nothing would be easier than to multiply these 

 examples, and to furnish additional proofs of the fact, 

 that in the different processes by which the duration 



* The observation of this fact in reference to the Medusse is due 

 to M. Dujardin. For several years this observer had kept Algae 

 with several of the lower marine animals in vessels of sea- 

 water. In 1841 he observed a small Zoophyte attached to the walls 

 of one of his glasses. This beautiful polype, which I have several 

 times had the pleasure of observing, was allied to the Syncorina 

 and designated by M. Dujardin by the name of Stauridia. It consists 

 of a transparent tube, adhering to the sides of the vessel, and 

 throwing out in different directions its branches, which terminate in 

 a polype-like body having four arms arranged crossways. For 

 fifteen months M. Dujardin had seen these Stauridias multiply by 

 budding, when he one day perceived that some of these buds pre- 

 sented an unusual appearance. He watched their development, and 

 had the pleasure of seeing them change into beautiful little Medusae^ 

 which, after being detached from the common trunk, successively 

 acquired several organs, in which they had previously been 

 deficient, amongst others, those which were destined to serve for 

 the reproduction of the species. M. Dujardin has given to these 

 Medusse, the name of Cladonema, and he has since extended his 

 researches to other species. (See the Memoirs of M. Dujardin on 

 the Development of the Medusae and the Hydroid Polypes in the 

 Annales des Sciences Naturelles.} 



