HYDRA AND ITS “ LICE” 283 
the knot-like lumps, which are to be seen also in Fig. 5, 
KLM. These lumps look to me as though they were 
made up of seven round globules; to wit, one in the 
middle, which sticks up a bit above the others, and the rest 
lying round it in a rosette. 
Now if we consider what a lot of instruments must all 
be contained in a little piece like Fig. 6, in order that it 
may be not only stretched out, but also drawn in, and 
moved around, and with as many bends and knots in it too 
as you might make in a piece of string; so must we 
wonder all the more at such a contrivance. And who 
knows but what every knot-like part may not also itself 
be furnished with yet other organs, whereby they are set 
in motion. Seeing these things I was put in mind of the 
knotted threads over which people have spent so much 
time these last few years:* and I said to myself, If the 
ladies of our country could see such a wonderful and 
perfect structure, would they not have reason to bewail 
the time and gifts which they employ in making such a 
lot of useless knots, in which not the least bit of art or 
beauty is ever to be seen! 
I saw in this water, or on the duckweed, many wonderful 
animalcules, some of them getting their food from it, and 
others (as I imagined) using it as a skulking place, to 
avoid being devoured by little fishes: but the weed seemed 
only calculated to show off’ the three sorts of animalcules 
aforesaid.” 
' This apparently refers to some kind of macramé-work in which L.’s 
countrywomen then indulged: but I have been unable to find any other 
reference to it in contemporary writers. 
2 maar voor genomen de drie verhaalde dierkens aan te wijsen MS. I take 
the above to be L.’s meaning. In his view, everything in nature was created 
for some purpose ; and I suppose he would have said that one of the purposes 
of duckweed is to accommodate and display animalecules such as Vorticella.— 
The last words of the above sentence were omitted by Chamberlayne— 
possibly because he could not understand what they meant. 
* L. here describes the duckweed itself, and its generation, at greater 
