432 EVENINGS AT THE inCEOSCOPE. 



Chara, &c., and whose surface is "well covered with 

 duckweed {Lemnd), yields well ; and, in collecting, it 

 is desirable so to dip as that some of the fine loose sedi- 

 ment of the bottom may flow into your phial, and then 

 to pluck up one or more of the filamentous water-plants, 

 and introduce these into your vessel. 



Now, to examine such a collection, pi-oceed as I am 

 about to show you. I hastily glance with the pocket- 

 lens over the foliage, and selecting such filaments as 

 seem the most loaded with dirty floccose matter, I 

 pluck off with pliers one or two, together with one or 

 two of the cleaner ones that are higher up on the 

 plant, nearer the growing point. Having laid these on 

 the lower glass of the live-box, I take up with the tip 

 of a fine capillary tube, or a pipette, a minute quantity 

 of the water at the bottom, which flows in as you see, 

 carrying a few granules of the sediment. This drop I 

 discharge upon the glass of the live-box, put on the 

 cover, and place the whole on the stage of the micro- 

 scope. 



First let us use a low power — one hundred diame- 

 ters or so — in order to take a general glance at what 

 we have got. Here is an array of life, indeed ! Motion 

 arrests the cj^e everywhere. "The glittering swift and 

 the flabby slow" are alike here ; clear crystal globules 

 revolve giddily on their axes ; tiny points leap hither 

 and thither like nimble fleas : long forms are twistin<r 

 to and fro ; busy little creatures are regularly quarter- 

 ing the hunting-ground, grubbing with an earnest de- 

 votedness among the sediment, as they march up the 

 stems ; here are vases with translucent bodies protrud- 

 ing from the mouths ; here are beauteous bells, set at 

 the end of tall threads, ever lengthening and short- 



