192 



THE MICROSCOPE. 



The cell is commonly known as the Volvox globator, or 

 revolving-cell, represented in figs. 106 & 120, Nos. 1, 2, 3. 

 These revolving globular bodies are found of various sizes, 

 some large enough to be discernible by the naked eye, 

 and for a very long time, were classed with the lower forms 

 of animal life ; and there it remained for the micro- 

 chemical investigators of the present time to settle the 

 perplexing question, and assign to them a place amongst 

 the lower order of plants. 



Leeuwenhoek first perceived the motion of what he 

 termed globes, "not more than the 30th of an inch in 



diameter, through water ; 

 and judged them to be ani- 

 mated." These globes are 

 studded with innumerable 

 minute green spots at their 

 surface, each of which is a cell 

 about the 3500th part of an 

 inch in size, with a vivid nu- 

 cleus having many ever-active 

 cilia, that bristle over their 

 spherical home and are bound 

 to each other by bands form- 

 ing a beautiful net - work. 

 Within this globe busy active 

 nature is at work carefully 

 providing a continuance of the 

 species ; and from six to twenty 

 little bright - green spheres 

 have been found enclosed in 

 the larger transparent case. 

 Fig 106 As each one of these arrives 



#, just before the young burst at maturity, the parent cell 



forth, showing the vesicle which en- en l ar ^ ea . then bursts J 



closes each. 2, Parent cell of Clos- - . 



teria. 3, Docidium clavatum. 4, to launch forth its offspring 



into a watery world. Both 



the older and younger spheres possess openings through 

 which the water freely flows, affording food and air to the 

 little organised being. 



Dr. Carpenter believes, " The Volvocinece, whose vegetable 

 nature has been made known to us by observation of cer- 



