70 DROPS OF WATER. 



This slight sketch of the Desmidiea will suffice 

 to call the attention to an interesting and won- 

 derful family of minute objects, only discernible 

 by the microscope, and therefore unknown to 

 the greater number even of those who interest 

 themselves in botany. If this brief account 

 should excite the curiosity of the lovers of nature 

 to make deeper researches, the valuable work by 

 Mr. Ralfs is recommended as the most useful to 

 assist the student ; much information has been 

 derived from it for these pages. 



Naviculacea. I shall not again repeat the 

 opinions of naturalists, or the disputes as to the 

 nature of this branch of the family Bacillaria, 

 but merely name the most interesting of the 

 genera. Navicula is so called from its shape, all 



