Molluscs,

after pairing and copulation, lay a white spawn; and
this spawn, as in the case of the testacean, gets granular in time.
The octopus discharges into its hole, or into a potsherd or into any
similar cavity, a structure resembling the tendrils of a young vine or
the fruit of the white poplar, as has been previously observed. The
eggs, when the female has laid them, are clustered round the sides
of the hole. They are so numerous that, if they be removed they
suffice to fill a vessel much larger than the animal's body in which
they were contained. Some fifty days later, the eggs burst and the
little polypuses creep out, like little spiders, in great numbers; the
characteristic form of their limbs is not yet to be discerned in
detail, but their general outline is clear enough. And, by the way,
they are so small and helpless that the greater number perish; it is a
fact that they have been seen so extremely minute as to be
absolutely without organization, but nevertheless when touched they
moved. The eggs of the sepia look like big black myrtle-berries, and
they are linked all together like a bunch of grapes, clustered round a
centre, and are not easily sundered from one another: for the male
exudes over them some moist glairy stuff, which constitutes the sticky
gum. These eggs increase in size; and they are white at the outset,
but black and larger after the sprinkling of the male seminal fluid.