INFUSORIA. 



299 



of various forms and stages of growth, represented in 

 fig. 174. 1 



Fig. 174. Noctiluca miliaris. 



11 Awaked before the rushing prow, 

 The mimic fires of ocean glow, 



Those lightnings of the wave ; 

 Wild sparkles crest the broken tides, 

 And, flashing round the vessel's sides, 



With elfish lustre lave ; 

 While far behind their livid light 

 To the dark billows of the night 



A gloomy splendour gave." SCOTT. 



. Monads. These are amongst the smallest 

 atoms of matter possessing the mysterious principle of life, 



discernible by the highest 

 magnifying power of the 

 microscope. Minute, how- 

 ever, as they are, no one can 

 say but that they derive their 

 sustenance by preying on 

 animals even less than them- 

 selves, as larger ones of the 

 same species do upon them. 

 Monads vary in their 

 colours, some being red, 

 green, yellow, others nearly 

 colourless; in shape they 

 are round or oval (5 and 6, 

 fig. 185), and possessed of 



immense activity, having. 

 Fig. 175. one or more parts devoted 



1, Vibrio spirilla. 2, Echinella, Fan- |Q the purpose of 

 shaped animalcules; near which an A ._ /rJL;i~ I,,, 



enlarged view of one is shown. 



tion. Monads have been 

 claimed by the botanist, and 

 accordingly placed among the genus Volvocinece, confervoid 



(1) See Gosse's Naturalist's Rambles : Huxley, Micro. Journal, 1855. 



