ACALEPHrE. 
211 
for woodlice like others, and they ate them. Nor is this all. I hare 
s een a mother-polype which had carried its third generation. From 
fhe little one which she had produced issued another little one, and 
from this a third.” 
Charles Bennet, the naturalist of Geneva, says wittily, that a 
Polype thus charged with all its descendants constitutes a living 
genealogical tree. 
We have just spoken of turning polypes inside out ! If one of these 
creatures is thus operated upon while it bears its young on the surface 
of its body, such of them as are sufficiently advanced continue to 
lllc rease ; although they find themselves in this sudden manner im- 
prisoned in an internal cavity, they re-issue subsequently by the mouth. 
Those less advanced at the moment of reversal issue by little and 
little from the maternal sac, and complete their career of development 
on the newly-made exterior. 
The third and most extraordinary mode of reproduction in the 
Polypes has been discovered by Trembley in the case of the green Hydra. 
surprised was this naturalist at the strange anomalies which sur- 
1 0| uided these creatures, that he began to have doubts, and gravely to 
as k the question, Was this polype an animal ? Is it a plant ? 
In order to escape from this state of indecision, it occurred to him to 
® ll f a Hydra into pieces. Concluding that plants alone could repro- 
ve themselves by slips, he waited the result of the experiment for the 
inclusion he sought. On the 25th of November, 1740, he cut a 
Polype into sections. “ I put,” he tells us, “ the two parts into a flat 
b ass > which contained water four or five lines in depth, and in such a 
banner that each portion of the polype could be easily observed through 
strong magnifying glass. It will suffice to say that I had cut the 
P 0 lype transversely, and a little nearer to the anteriox - . On the 
a °riiing of the day after having cut the polype, it seemed to me that 
f^ e edges of the second part, which had neither head nor arms, 
ee small points were issuing from these edges. This surprised me 
s tremely ) and I waited with impatience for the moment when I could 
' aiJ y ascertain what they were. Next day they were sufficiently 
The l0ped t0 leaTe no doubt on my mind that they were true arms, 
da 6 ^^’Wg day two new arms made their appearance, and, some 
^ys after, a third appeared, and I could now trace no difference between 
le first and second half of the polype which I had cut.” 
p 2 
