l8o RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



the lens. In a moment or two all is in readiness 

 for the inspection of my visitors. And what a 

 spectacle it is which they gaze npon ! It will not 

 be long before all sorts of ejaculations and expres- 

 sions of amazement and delight will be uttered. 

 All round the field, and interlacing every part of it, 

 are microscopic water-weeds, while clinging to what 

 look like thick stems and silvery twigs, or darting 

 about through the microscopic jungle, are weird and 

 wondrous creatures which rivet the attention of the 

 observer. In these few drops of water in which to 

 the naked eye there seemed to be almost nothing, 

 there is now seen to exist a crowded population. 

 There is the exquisitely beautiful Bell-animalcule 

 (Vorticella), the elaborately organised Rotifer or 

 Wheel-animalcule, the Hydra, hanging on to the 

 white root-fibre of the duckweed (Lemna) with its 

 tentacles spreading out like a tuft of branches, the 

 whole not very dissimilar in appearance to a minia- 

 ture palm-tree, while, here and there, flitting about 

 with extraordinary velocity, may be caught a glimpse 

 of the slipper-shaped Paramcecium, the pink-eyed 

 Euglena, or the restless water-flea, which keeps up 

 its incessant evolutions like an untiring acrobat. 



But all these wonders cannot be fully described 

 in the comparatively short space of time that my 

 friends can give me at one visit. I proceed, there- 

 fore, to single out two or three of the objects seen, 

 and separate them as far as possible from the 

 rest. 



We will first of all look at the minute vegetable 

 organisms contained in the selected drop of water. 



