12 Marvels of Pond-Life. 



transferred a few threads of the conferva from the 

 bottle to the live box, spreading out the fine fibres with 

 a needle^ and adding a drop of water. The cover is 

 then gently pressed down^ and- the whole placed on the 

 stage of the microscope^ to be examined with a power 

 of about sixty. A light is thrown somewhat obliquely 

 by the mirror through the object, the focus adjusted, 

 and a beautiful sight rewards the pains. Our mass of 

 conferva turns out to contain one of the most elegant 

 species. Fine hair-like tubes of an organic material, 

 as transparent as glass, are divided by partitions of the 

 same substance into cylindrical cells, through which a 

 slender ribbon of emerald green, spangled at intervals 

 with small round expansions, is spirally wound. We 

 shall call it the Spiral Conferva, its scientific name 

 being Spirogyra quinina. Some other species, though 

 less elegantly adorned, make a pleasing variety in the 

 microscopic scene ; and appended to some of the 

 threads is a group of small crystal bells, which jerk up 

 and down upon spirally twisted stalks. These are the 

 " Bell Flower Animalcules ^' of old observers, the 

 Vorticellce, or Little Vortex-makers of the present day. 

 Other small creatures flit about with lively motions, 

 and among them we observe a number of green spindles 

 that continually change their shape, while an odd- 

 looking thing crawls about, after the manner of certain 

 caterpillars, by bringing his head and tail together, 

 shoving himself on a step, and then repeating the 

 process, and making another move. He has a kind of 

 snout, behind which are two little red eyes, and some- 

 thing like a pig-tail sticks out behind. This is the 



