26 MARVELS OF POND-LIFE. 



theory that has been propounded appears to meet 

 all cases. Some naturalists do not expect to find 

 a broad line of demarkation between the two great 

 divisions of living things, but others characterize 

 such an idea as "unphilosophical," in spite of which, 

 however, we incline towards it. 



Mr. Gosse, whose opinion is entitled to great 

 respect, calls the Euglence ''animals" in his "Evenings 

 with the Microscope;" but from the aggregate of 

 recorded observations it seems that they evolve ox- 

 ygen, are coloured with the colouring matter of 

 plants, reproduce their species in a manner analo- 

 gous to plants, and have in some cases been clearly 

 traced to the vegetable world. It is, however, 

 possible that some Euglence forms may be animal 

 and others vegetable, and while their place at 

 nature's table is being decided, they must be con- 

 tent to be called Fhytozoa^ which, as we have 

 before explained, is merely Zoophyte turned upside 

 down. 



Some authorities have thought their animality 

 proved by the high degree of contractility which 

 their tissues evince. This, however, cannot go for 

 much, as all physiologists admit contractility to 

 belong to the vegetable tissues of the sensitive plant, 

 or "Venus' Fly-trap," and a little more or less 

 cannot mark the boundary between two orders of 

 being. 



