116 VIGNETTES FROM INVISIBLE LIFE. 



ing patches, and adhering to any object with which 

 they happen to come in contact; and here the 

 variability is so great that you cannot find any two 

 alike nor, except in one instance, have I ever 

 seen any approach to definite form, or symmetry. 

 This one is here represented in the wood-cut, and 

 besides being an exception to the general rule of 

 irregularity, is an apparently new form. Yet it 

 would probably be unsafe to give it a distinctive 

 name, for one may never find another like it.* 

 It has four contractile vesicles, placed equidistant 

 from each other, and exactly double that number 

 of bundles of tentacles placed at regular intervals 

 around the circular transparent body the whole 

 forming a very beautiful object. Placing this one 

 with the irregulars, as merely an exception on the 

 one point of symmetry, and proceeding to note sub- 

 sequent stages of development, it is seen that after 

 a time the tentacles are withdrawn and all active 

 signs of life are at an end. Nothing now remains 

 but lumps and shining patches of apparently pro- 

 toplasmic matter. Continuous observation becomes 



* Nevertheless, as a name it must have, I have placed it with 

 the Sjphoerophrya as S. symmetrii. 



