. The animal creation: a popular introduction to zoology. Zoology. HYDKOZOA. 31 The Hydra,* the history of which is so curious and important, as to demand our s}3ecial notice. This little creature resembles a small portion of green transparent thread, fastened by one end to the stems of water-plants, while the other is fur- nished with several ra- diating filaments of ex- treme tenuity, which float freely in all directions; should one of the nume- rous water-fleas, or any other minute animal, come in contact with these floating filaments, though it touch but the tip of one of them, it is at on
. The animal creation: a popular introduction to zoology. Zoology. HYDKOZOA. 31 The Hydra,* the history of which is so curious and important, as to demand our s}3ecial notice. This little creature resembles a small portion of green transparent thread, fastened by one end to the stems of water-plants, while the other is fur- nished with several ra- diating filaments of ex- treme tenuity, which float freely in all directions; should one of the nume- rous water-fleas, or any other minute animal, come in contact with these floating filaments, though it touch but the tip of one of them, it is at once arrested in its course, and in spite of all its struggles ch-agged to the central mouth, which opens to receive the helpless prey. The body of the Hydra consists simply of a little gelatinous bag, the mar- gins of which are fur- nished with filaments em- ployed as tentacles, whilst at the opposite end there is a little sucker where- by it fixes itself to foreign objects. The microscoj)e reveals the substance of these creatures to be composed entirely of a transpa- rent glairy matter, in which granules of slightly greater opacity may be observed to float. Not- withstanding this simplicity of structure, however, * Hydra, a fabled monster that reproduced its heads as fast as thev were cut oif. V. Fig. 17.—loxg-armed Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Jones, Thomas Rymer, 1810-1880. London : Society for Promoting Knowledge
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectzoology
