Marvels of Pond-Life. 1 1 1 



unable to say ; but they are very inferior in beauty to 

 the " gay and glittering crowd/^^ 



For some weeks my Stentors al)Oundcd, and then 

 most of them suddenly disappeared. They could not 

 have " movcd/^ but probably " went to smash ^' by a 

 process peculiar to infusoria, and which Dujardin 

 politely describes as ^' difflucnee/' This mode of 

 making an exit from the stage of life is more tragical 

 than the ripping up so fashionable in Japan. The 

 integument bursts, and its contents disperse in minute 

 particles, that in their turn disappear, and scarcely 

 leave a ^^ wrack behind/^ 



The Stentors obey the injunction to " increase and 

 multiply" by self- division, which Stein says is always 

 oblique, and the nucleus, which plays such an impor- 

 tant ^part in infusoria, is band-like, moniliform (bead- 

 shape), or round. When an animalcule increases by 

 self- division, a portion of the nucleus goes with each 

 part, and it is probably the organ which stimulates the 

 change. It is also concerned in other modes of propa- 

 gation. "The anus is situated on the back close 

 beneath the ciliary circle ;" and the " contractile vesicle 

 on a level with the ciliary wreath.'' Steiu records that 

 in November, 1858, he met green Stentors [Pobj- 

 morphus) encysted, and he figures one in a gelatinous 

 flask having a stopper in its narrow neck. 



Before closing our account of the Stentor, let us 

 revert a moment to the ciliary wreath, as it may be 

 made the subject of a curious experiment. If, for 



* Stein says the colourless variety of S. Polymorphus is sometimes 

 found with a tube, and the S. Rossellii very frc(iueutly so provided. 



