Hydra^ or Fresh-^aoater Polypus, 349 



Having, from time to time, collected these animals from 

 the ditches intersecting the meadows in the Cathedral Pre- 

 cinct here, I am desirous that you should record the locality, 

 and, at the same time, direct the attention of naturalists to 

 these interesting objects. For the purpose of ascertaining if 

 they had resumed their summer station, I visited the spot on 

 the 20th of May ; and, in a six-ounce vial of the water (from 

 just beneath the surface) and duckweed which I collected, I 

 found no less than twelve animals, eight of which were of the 

 green kind, i/ydra viridis Lin, {fig* 89. a, twice the natural 



size), and four pink- 

 s' y k\ / coloured (^), noticed 

 '~~^^^r^ --^^^^^^^ ^y ^^' Baker, at p. 20. 

 if) r^ ^^^ natural history 

 '^ ^ '' -^^^ of these animals. The 

 green species were from 

 1 to 2 lines in length ; 

 the pink would stretch 

 themselves to nearly 4 lines, and were much the largest ani- 

 mals. On the 23d of this month they began to bud (as at c) ; 

 and on the 24th, young animals, in different stages of growth, 

 were to be seen extending their slender arms from nearly all 

 the specimens : in some instances one, and in others two, 

 were seen attached to the parent stem {de), I observed, in 

 several of the young animals, only five arms, which arose 

 from the remaining two not being developed. 



Mr. William Anderson, F.R.S., to whom Mr. Baker ac- 

 knowledges himself under great obligations for his assistance 

 in his second treatise on the microscope, paid great attention 

 to these animals, and collected thenj from the ditches around 

 Norwich ; and from his manuscript journal, in my possession, 

 it appears that the principal locality was a ditch in Spring 

 Garden, situate about a quarter of a mil^ south of the place 

 where I collected mine. * He remarks that he has never found 

 any before the beginning of May, or later than August. Of 

 their food, he observes that he found the small white worm, 

 inhabiting the mud of our channels^ to be more acceptable. 

 Mr. Baker fed his upon the small red ^arthrworm. 



It would, perhaps, be superfluous in me to make any fur- 

 ther remarks, so much having been said by Mr. Baker, to 

 whose interesting work I beg to refer your readers. 

 I ^m, Sir, &c. 



Samuel Woodward. 

 Dianas Square^ Norwich, May 25. 1829. 



* The Hydra fusca may be found in the pond by the Red House, at 

 Battersea, as large as Mr. Woodward's drawings of H. viridis. — J, D,C. S. 



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