4 VIGNETTES FROM INVISIBLE LIFE. 



We have seen that the active life is in the flower : 

 the trunk and branches stand in the same relation 

 to it as the shell does to the snail. You may often 

 observe the rigid and flowerless trunk and branches 

 standing bare all the flowers gone, and life extinct. 

 Some of this class of creatures develop flexible 

 trunks and branches capable of rapid and beautiful 

 changes ever and anon changing from a wide- 

 spreading forest-like tree to a small and compact 

 mass; others, again, develop only spiral stems, 

 which they attach to the leaves or stalks of weeds. 

 In the composition of all, however, there is more 

 of the animal than of the vegetable. 



By this time, of course, the reader will have 

 gathered that the thing here described is of micro- 

 scopic dimensions ; and in fact its natural size (as 

 will be seen by reference to the little figure to the 

 left in our engraving) is no bigger than a pin's 

 head, and presents no sign of organic structure to 

 the unassisted vision. It seems to be simply a bit 

 of dirty matter. Sometimes these creatures collect 

 in such vast numbers as to form large masses of 

 what looks like slime or filth, adhering to water- 

 plants or pieces of decaying branches of trees, or 



