MICROSCOPIC ARCHITECTS. 651 



might fairly hear the click of her teeth, so large and voracious does 

 she appear. 



Sometimes an animal is betrayed iuto the opening too large for 

 the Floscule to manage, and it is very amusing to watch its efforts to 

 escape, and to see the Floscule try to devour it ; she makes many at- 

 tempts to take it into her mouth, but, at last, seeming to become dis- 

 couraged, she opens wide the door and gives it permission to leave. 



Fig. 3 introduces us to one of the most lovely of microscopic 

 objects, the Tree Vorticella ( Carchesium polypinum). Although this 

 animal cannot be said to build a house, yet, in one sense, it is an 

 architect, for a tree is built up in some way, and the little bell-shaped 

 creatures hang on the ends of the branches, where they look more like 

 flowers than animals. The stem of the tree is transparent and seems 

 to be jointed, and the little creatures can swing the branches about, 

 and even throw them into a spiral coil, so as to bring them close to 

 the trunk of the tree. This gives them the appearance of being won- 

 derfully polite : they bow and courtesy to each other as if preparing 

 for a grand quadrille ; and they are decked out in gay colors, red 

 and green, and yellow, and the margin of the little cup is beautifully 

 fringed with cilia, which are in rapid motion, producing a current which 

 brings their food to them. 



But one of the most curious sights I ever beheld was a Cyclops, 

 with a Tree Vorticella growing on its back. It was a larger tree 

 than here represented, and a different species ; the branches were 

 more straight, and much more numerous. Only think of it, an animal 

 swimming about with a great tree of living freight on its back ! But 



Fig. 4. 



Paramecium Caudatum (Front View). 



they did not seem to have much control over the Cyclops, for he 

 dashed about as if he did not care how many he knocked overboard ! 

 But, alas ! the poor Cyclops, with his strange freight, came to grief. 

 I undertook to transfer him to the live-box, so that our artist might 

 have him more under control, when I brought down the cover a little 

 too close, crushing him in the operation. This sent the vorticellas 

 flying off their stems, and all was spoiled. ^ 



