3 GEyEEAL niSTOET OF 



of flowers have boon a few days steeped — wliilst many of the morc- 

 bcaiitiful kindS; such, as the Vohocina, Astasiaa, Uydatincca, &.c., arc- 

 to be found in pools of clear standing water. 



Many remai'kable species, and some of the most elegant I have 

 ever examined, have been taken in meadow-trenches, in the slowly 

 rimniug water, after a summer shower, and especially about the 

 pei'iod that the first crop of hay was mown. Among healthy water 

 I)lonts, such as the Chara, Ceratophyllum, Confervto, Lemna, &c., 

 the various kinds of Vorticellina and Rotatoria, may bo sought for 

 with success. The stems of aquatic plants, particidarly those of the 

 description just mentioned, have often the appearance, to the naked 

 eyo, of being encased with mouldiness or miicor, wliich, on being 

 examined under the microscope, proves to be an extensive colony of 

 arborescent animalcules. AVhenever this appearance is of a blueish 

 milky hue, the species will mostly be those of the Vorticella or 

 Ji!pisti/lts. (See the Engravings.) If you observe little dark bristle- 

 like bodies standing out among the stems, you may expect them to 

 be the Melicerta ; and the little ycUow gelatinous balls upon the 

 Ceratophyllum are, probably, the McgalatrocTxa. In clear shallow 

 pools, the Volvox glohator (Jig. 55) may be met with in vast numbers 

 in the spring of the year ; and, when these are found amongst 

 Lemna, by examining them under a deep magnifying power, you 

 may often discover, ■uithin theu- hollow spheres, the Notommata 

 parasita, like so many white specks. The dust-like stratum we fre- 

 quently notice on the surface of stagnant ponds, is often composed 

 almost entirely of species of the most bcautilul colours, such as the 

 Muglena, Chlorogonimn, Pandorina, Gonium, and Bursaria. The thin 

 shining film, which sometimes covers plants in pools of water, 

 assuming the varied hues of red, brown, yellow, green, and blue, is 

 also made up of Infusorial Animalcules. For example — those 

 objects, which under water appear to be coated with a thick green 

 matter, aboimd with the different species of tho Euadra and 

 Closterium, or with the Artkrodesmus quadricaudatus and A.2)cetinatus, 

 the Stcntor polgmorphus, and Vorticella cJiIorostigma ; and those 

 objects which have a bright orange-coloured coating, derive it from 

 the presence of the Stentor aureus. 



The abode of animalculea is not, however, confined to the clear 



