CHAPTER VL 



MAY. 



May, the first of summer months, and of old 

 famous for floral games, which found their latest 

 patrons in the chimney-sweeps of London, is a good 

 time for the microscopist among the ponds, for the 

 increase of warmth and heat favours both animal 

 and vegetable life, and so we found as we carried 

 home some tops of myriophyllum, and soon discov- 

 ered a colony of tubicolor rotifers among the tiny 

 branches. They proved to be Floscules, generally 

 resembling the F. ornata^ described in a previous 

 page, but having a long slender proboscis hanging 

 like a loose ringlet down one side. The cilia or 

 hairs were not so long as in the Beautiful Flos- 

 cules we had before obtained, nor was their manner 

 of opening so elegant; but they were, nevertheless, 

 objects of great interest, and Avere probably speci- 

 mens of the Floscularia cornuta. A swimming 

 rotifer in a carapace somewhat fiddle-shaped, with 

 one eye in its forehead, and a two-pronged tail 



