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The group to which these worms belong—the syllids—are perhaps unique among bilaterally symmetrical animals in this bizarre reproductive strategy, termed “gemmiparous schizogamy.”

Rootless; leaves cleft ¼–½ their length, the lobes ovate, subequal, acute or obtuse, entire, or gemmiparous ones subdentate; involucral leaves trifid; perianth oval-oblong or subcylindric.—On rocks in high mountain regions, and northward.

Not less than five modes of reproduction are known to exist, viz., the viviparous, the ovo-viviparous, the oviparous, the gemmiparous, and the fissiparous; and among the lowest families of animals several of these modes exist in the same species, so that their extinction, or even deficient multiplication, is scarcely possible.

Organic remains clearly teach us that there have always been viviparous as well as oviparous creatures, and gemmiparous as well as fissiparous animals and plants.

Passing to the invertebrate animals, we meet with two other modes of reproduction, the gemmiparous and fissiparous.