FRESH-WATER POLYPE. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
A contractile animal affixed to some substance by its base, 
and provided with a number of tentacula surrounding its 
mouth. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Hydra fusca. . . . H. tentaculis suboctonis longissimis. 
Linn. Syst. Nat. Gmel. 1 . p. 3870. 
Polype with eight long arms. 
Hydra corpore cordato griseo, cirrhis 
multoties longioribus. Pallas El. 
Zooph. p. 29. no. 1. 
Fresh- water Polype. Ellis Corail. pi. 28. f. C. Tremb. 
Polyp. 1 . p. 22. pi. 1 . f. 3, 4. Schceff. 
Polyp. 1754. pl.3.f. 1. 
We are indebted to the indefatigable researches of 
M. Trembley for the natural history of this little 
animal, which makes so insignificant a figure in the 
wide field of nature, that till his time we had no 
regular account of its wonderful properties. It was 
a doubt, when first discovered, whether the polype 
was a vegetable or an animal substance; and so 
nearly is it allied in appearance to a plant, that it 
2 r 2 
