MICROSCOPIC ARCHITECTS. 649 



to quite comprehend what the matter was with her surroundings. It 

 was some hours before she resumed her occupation of brickmaking, 

 and, when one was completed, it was very amusing to watch her 

 efforts to place it ; she wasted a quantity of brick before she became 

 aware how low down she must reach in order to rebuild, but this at 

 last she learned, and now the work was rapidly carried forward ; she 

 had placed several new tiers around her dwelling when an accident 

 prevented my further observation. There was no difficulty in seeing 

 where the building recommenced, for the new brick was very much 

 lighter colored than the old. 



Fig. 2 represents the beautiful Floscule. Microscopists call it 

 FlosGularia ornata. Like the Brickmaker, it lives in a house, a trans- 

 parent, glass-like house, which I frequently find broken, sometimes en- 

 tirely demolished, as if the tenant had been in some skirmish, but they 

 seem to get along very well without a house. 



The Floscule here represented was probably blessed with an ami- 

 able disposition, and had lived a peaceable life, for she was large and 

 well developed, and had an unbroken house to dwell in, through which 

 we could see two large eggs near the bottom. When the eggs hatch, 

 the little animals leave their mother's house and go floating off, living 

 a free-and-easy sort of life ; but, after a few days of this wandering, 

 gypsy kind of existence, they seem to become impressed with the 

 graver duties of life, and settle down and set up house-keeping on 

 their own account. 



Like the Brickmaker, the Floscule has a long footstalk, which 

 she fastens to the leaf of some water-plant, where she remains moored 

 during the rest of her life. She seems to be a very nervous, sensitive 

 creature ; for the slightest jar upon the table, or sometimes even a 

 step upon the floor, or the closing of a door, will quickly send her 

 into her glass-like house, where she settles down in a heap, look- 

 ing scarcely more than an animated mass of jelly. But, if all is 

 quiet, she soon begins to unfold, stretches out her long footstalk, 

 which pushes up her bell-shaped body, surmounted by a mass of fine 

 bristly filaments, which look like a dense cloud of smoke issuing from 

 the opening at the top ; and, as she gradually unfolds, we see there 

 are five lobes to which the hair-like filaments are attached, which now 

 begin to spread out like a fan {see Fig. 2). As nothing is made in 

 vain, these filaments must in some way be of use to the animal. She 

 cannot go in search of food, for she is firmly anchored to one spot, and 

 has no wheels to set in motion to form a current to bring food to 

 her: so we will carefully watch and see how she caj)tures her prey. 

 Here comes a little floating monad. Ah, it is caught among the 

 bristly filaments, and flies wildly about as if bewildered ; but, instead 

 of retreating and getting away, it goes down, down, until it reaches 

 the wide opening. This opening is surmounted by the five lobes 

 which bear the filaments, but it is not the Floscule's mouth, the 



