402 



EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



And now, having pretty well exhausted the contents 

 of this live-box, let us try a dip from this other phial 

 from another locality, equally productive, if I am not 

 mistaken. Yes; for, to begin, the stalks of Nitella here 

 are fringed with populous colonies of the most attractive 

 of all the Infusoria, the beautiful Vorticellce. The species 

 is not the common bell-shaped one, but the smaller with 

 pursed mouth, the little V. microstoma. 



Look at this active group, consisting of a dozen or so 

 of glassy vases, shaped something like pears, or elegant 



YOETICELX^:. 



antique urns, elevated on the extremities of long and 

 very slender stalks, as slender as threads, and about six 

 times as long as the vases. The stalks grow from the 

 midst of the floccose rubbish attached to the plant, and 

 diverge as they ascend, thus carrying their lovely bells 

 clear of one another. 



Each vase is elegantly ventricose, or swollen, in the 



