eats and digests for the group, another defends by nettling cells, another produces eggs. Each hydra-like part of a hydroid is called a hydranth. Sometimes the buds on the hydra remain attached so long that a bud forms upon the first bud. Thus three generations are represented in one organism. Such growths show us that it is not always easy to tell what constitutes an individual animal.
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Fig. 42.—The formation of many free swimming jellyfishes from one fixed hydra-like form. The saucer-like parts (h) turn over after they separate and become like Fig. 43 or 44. Letters show sequence of diagrams.
Hydroids may be conceived to have been developed by the failure of budding hydras to separate from the parent, and by the gradual formation of the habit of living together and assisting each other. When each hydranth of the hydroid devoted itself to a special function of digestion, defense, or reproduction, this group lived longer and prospered; more eggs were formed, and the habits of the group were transmitted to a more numerous progeny than were the habits of a group where members worked more independently of each other.
As the sponge is the first, lowest, and simplest example of the devotion of special cells to special purposes, the hydroid is the first, lowest, and simplest example of the occurrence of organs, that is of special parts of the body (groups of cells) set aside for a special work.
