l60 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



are derived partly from their motion and partly from 

 their organization." On the leaves of Ceratophylhim 

 he observed the manner in which several Closteria 

 adhered elegantly by one extremity ; in about a 

 quarter or half an hour many of them were situated 

 in the same manner upon a higher part of the leaf ; 

 not a single animalcule was found on the side of the 

 leaf nor adherent longitudinally to it. They had 

 evidently moved during the above time from the 

 lower to the upper part of the leaf. If we observe 

 their motions under the microscope they are not so 

 rapid as those of many other polygastric infusoria ; 

 but the motion is always evidently animal. They 

 swim, especially in summer, in the most varied direc- 

 tions, and he had frequently seen them swim against 

 the current when the water on the object holder was 

 flowing towards one side, whilst fragments of plants, 

 various kinds of Spirogyra and Oscillaria, were carried 

 away. It is difficult here to discover anything but 

 animal motion ; to explain this, however, by elec- 

 tricity, as Turpin attempted, is unnatural, and not 

 less absurd than that of the muscular fibre by the 

 same natural agent, by Strauss. But the relations of 

 the organization of the Closteria are likewise in 

 favour of their animal nature.^ He then alludes to 

 form, terminal vesicles, the supposed " feet " of 

 Ehrenberg, the rows of granules, etc., and concludes, 

 " All these are not plant-like ; and if the carapace of 

 Closteria should prove to be of a horny nature, 

 they would be removed from the vegetable kingdom 

 with still greater certainty." 



* Annals of N'atural History Q^n., 1847), vol. xviii. p. 434 



