356 The Miceoscope. 



with a one inch by lamp light aided by a condenser, as I have 

 observed on former occasions when I knew just where to look 

 for it. Applying the one-fifth we are rewarded by an indis- 

 cribably magnificent exhibition ; the protoplasmic life currents 

 are grandly astir ; we see the protoplasm itself as plainly as 

 streams of water after a shower, and in or on it are sharply 

 defined granules, sweeping along in these currents, little globular 

 bodies ; without these the protoplasm is soft and beautiful, 

 shining in its modified light as mildly as moonbeams pale. We 

 have often observed this soft, pale appearance -of healthy, grow- 

 ing protoplasm ; with age it becomes denser, more easily seen, 

 until at last, when it is dead, it is dense and very prominent. 

 It then separates from the cell walls and rolls into a mass in 

 the middle, appearing not much unlike the cumulus clouds of a 

 summer afternoon. Along the cell partitions we usually 

 observe the current of living protoplasm moving up along one 

 side and in an opposite direction down the other, caused no 

 doubt by the inter-communication of protoplasm from cell to 

 cell, through openings that we will examine soon. The stream 

 may often be narrow along the partition on one side, while on 

 the other it is a broad stream, occasionally with thickened or 

 swollen edges, or now moving in double currents like soldiers 

 countermarching. Here and there a thick band crosses through 

 the cell, oftenest obliquely; these, like grand highways, are select 

 lines in which the streams of life are flowing. Now focusing 

 through the upper plates of the cell, any one shows motion 

 just within its wall ; see those broad sheets of protoplasm 

 pressing, streaming onward with some definite object in view ; 

 focus downward through the cells; here and there threads of 

 streamers may be seen in some cells crossing through the mid- 

 dle interior, cellular spaces, but oftenest it is still and clear in 

 these central areas of the sap reservoirs, as pure as water itself, 

 even no special granules to be seen ; focus down till we reach 

 the protoplasm that lines the lower great flat plate of the cells ; 

 here we have a still better view of what we saw just beneath the 

 upper cell walls ; the streams are more definite, the granules are 

 plainer and can be studied more satisfactorily ; thus we trace 

 the protoi>lasm on every wall of our little ceil, and the sap with- 

 in seems to be its feeder. We see the protoplasm itself, inde- 

 pendent of these sharply defined granules, as we have qftei;! seeix 



