132 VIGNETTES FROM INVISIBLE LIFE. 



water, and this jelly-like substance is soon seen 

 to yield, and its contained occupants to be spread- 

 ing out their flexible bodies in radiating clusters, 

 none the worse for their temporary sojourn on dry 

 land. 



For more minute examination we again lift 

 them from the water, and with a pair of small 

 scissors detach one or more of these colonies from 

 the plant to which they have attached themselves, 

 place it in a glass trough, and so on to the stage 

 of the microscope. Here, with a low power say 

 1 or lj in. objective, and with a dark -ground 

 illumination the whole colony may be seen 

 at once, and their form and motions observed 

 with pleasure and delight. They are seen to 

 be of a yellowish white colour, with soft flexible 

 bodies not divided into segments like insects, 

 but constructed in yielding, graceful folds, one 

 part overlapping the next, and easily slipping 

 into each other in telescopic fashion. The head 

 is heart- or horseshoe- shaped a crown of beauty, 

 fringed with a double row or wreath of vibrating 

 cilia, which, when in motion, gives it the rotating 

 character so much admired and so conspicuous. 



