




ture, 
A FEW SEA-WORMS. 273 
power, according to Lewes, of throwing off another indi- 
vidual like itself, by a process analogous to the budding of 
leaves on a plant. But let us hear Mr. Lewes himself speak : 
“No one, I believe, has yet recorded the fact of the Tere- 
bella multiplying itself by the process of gemmation, which 
is known to occur in the case of some other Annelids,—such 
as the Vais, the Syllis, and the Myriana.* When the ani- 
mal reproduces by this budding process, it begins to form a 
second head near the extremity of its body. After this head 
other segments are in turn developed, the tail, or final seg- 
ment, being the identical tail of the mother, but pushed 
forward by the young segments, and now belonging to the 
child, and only vicariously to the mother. In this state we 
have two worms and one tail. Jt is as if a head were sud- 
denly to be developed out of your lumbar vertebre, yet still 
remain attached to the column, and thus produce a double- 
headed monster, more fantastic than fable. Or suppose you 
Were to cut a caterpillar in half, fashion a head for the tail 
half, and then fasten this head to the cut end of the other 
half,—this would give you an image of the Syllis budding. 
But in some worms the process does not stop here. What 
the mother did, the child does, and you may see at last 
‘IX worms forming one continuous line, with only one tail 
for the six. The tail indeed is the family inheritance ; but 
reversing the laws of primogeniture, it always descends to 
the youngest. Such, in a few words, is the budding of 
annelids. I omit differences, and many curious details, only 
desiring to fix the reader’s attention on the cardinal fact. . 
Separation finally takes place, and then we perceive the 
children and grandchildren are not quite the same as their 
ancestor. The fact has not been observed at all hitherto 
in the group of annelids named Tubicola; yet two of my 
“erebelloe gave me a sight of it. The first died before the 
*paration took place. The second, after a day or two’s 
à E a ey 

+ 
pni an account of this mode of reproduction in worms, see 
a by D. Appleton & Co., New York. 
ER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 35 
Clark’s “ Mind in Na- 
