Some Questions which they Suggest. 79 



oceans ? or does it mean that the species were defined 

 before the separation of the continents, and have continued 

 in both seats unchanged ever since ? 



SUGGESTIONS FOE STUDY. In the hope that some of our 

 readers may be induced by what we have written to take 

 up the study of these little organisms, we will say a few 

 words as to how to begin the study of them. They may 

 be found often in great abundance, and more or less in all 

 times of the year, except in extreme cold or prolonged 

 drought, on moist dead wood and dead leaves (hazel, 

 holly, and beech leaves are very good) ; a wood yard near a 

 country house, rotting stumps of trees, the dead stalks of 

 last year's nettles, the wooden pillars and parts of gates 

 and rails, the straw heaps in a farmyard all these are 

 likely places for the chase. Sometimes, too, as we have 

 said, they leave the dead substances, which are their chief 

 habitat, and climb over growing plants, as nettles, peri- 

 winkles, or moss. The eye wants some training to see 

 them quickly, and there is no doubt but that young eyes 

 are better than old ones. We know a case in which a 

 young lady detected a Trichia growing on the roadside from 

 her pony's back. 



If it be desired to keep specimens for use, they 

 should be preserved in dry boxes (the common lucifer 

 match boxes, lined with white paper, make very good 

 receptacles), into which they can be securely fixed by glue 

 or pins attached to the wood or leaves on which they rest. 

 For more minute observations recourse must, of course, be 



