198 DIPS INTO MY AQUARIUM. 



axils of the plant. It soon became evident that it was a totally 

 different creature from the one I had been examining. Although 

 its tentacles were not extended I could see that it was a tube- 

 maker. Knowing the timidity of these tiny animals I turned the 

 stage so as to bring the little stranger directly under observation, 

 and fixed my attention upon it. In due time there came out 

 from the mass five tapering arms, or tentacles, of crescentic shape, 

 and down each side of these slender crescentic horns there soon 

 became visible a number of minute glistening cilia. By means of 

 an oblique light I was able to see the movement of these cilia to 

 perfection, and for the next half-hour I desired no other occupa- 

 tion. Dark-ground illumination also brings out the ciliary action 

 very distinctly. As the creature became accustomed to the 

 altered light the number of its cilia seemed to increase. Its 

 gelatinous case appears to be constructed of rings of unequal size, 

 and partly overlapping, but this may have been an illusion owing 

 to their curvature near the lines of junction. At any rate the 

 whole tube or series of rings are of an exquisite glassy aspect, and 

 the tentacles have quite a pearly lustre. Tiny atoms of food can 

 be seen within the body lying like minute gems, while just below 

 the tentacles are small masses of matter supposed to be nervous 

 ganglia and other organs. 



From the books I find that young specimens have a pair of 

 sparkling red eyes, but in the adult these are not discernible. In 

 other characters Stephanoceros agrees with rotifers in general, but in 

 respect of its bewitching beauty I know of scarcely anything in 

 the vast assemblage of microscopic objects than can compare with 

 it. It richly deserves its name of the garlanded rotifer, and no 

 possessor of a microscope ought to rest content until he has 

 feasted his eyes with a long look at this living garden of flowers. 



The next dip into my aquarium, about which I wish to say 

 something, produced objects not so lovely as Stephanoceros^ but 

 which are well worth examining on account of their singular form 

 and habit. On the surface of the water, which had not been 

 disturbed for a day or two, I noticed an accumulation of scum. 

 I had brought home the water from a shallow, dirty pond, almost 

 covered with duckweed. I naturally expected to find hydras and 

 diatoms, but it was not these organisms that then first arrested 



