238 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



of one brood are of the same sex ; we never see a 

 Brachionus with male and female eggs at the same time. 

 "What is very strange, is, that the male has no shell, no 

 spines, no mouth, no jaws, no stomach, no intestines ; 

 no ciliary wheels ; its cilia, which are very long and 

 powerful, being arranged in one circle round the whole 

 front. Its movements are exceedingly fleet. 



Perhaps you are tired of Brachionus, and are ready to 

 cry out, " Ohe ! jam satis ! " * Well, then, I will turn 

 him off, and show you another elegant little creature, the 

 Whiptail (Mastigocerca carinata). I have here in a bottle 

 some stalks of the Water-Horsetail (Chara vulgaris) 

 which I obtained from a pond a few weeks ago. These I 

 examine in this way. Taking hold of the Chara with a 

 pair of pliers, I pull it partially out of the water, and 

 allowing it to rest on the neck of the bottle, I cut off with 

 a pair of scissors, or with a penknife on my nail, about 

 one-fourth of an inch of the tips of three or four leaves, 

 which adhere together by their wetness. These tips I 

 place in the live-box, with a drop of water, and having 

 separated them with a needle, I put on the cover, and 

 examine them with a triple pocket lens ; holding up the 

 box perpendicularly, not opposite the light, but obliquely, 

 so that the field is dark ; but the light reflected and re- 

 fracted by the animalcules shows them out beautifully 

 white and distinct, even the minute ones. The forms 

 and some characters of the middling and larger can be 

 quite discerned thus; for example, the slender tail of the 

 one I am now going to show you, I can thus see. The 

 position of any particular individual to be examined 

 being thus marked, it is readily put under the object- 

 glass of the microscope. I have found these leaves very 

 productive of the more stationary animalcules, the 

 Rotifera especially. 



It was in this way I this morning found the pretty and 

 * " dear ! quite enough of tli ; s ! " 



