TJie Animalcules, continued. 



125 



the vorticellce, are called Epistylis, and are allied to 

 the vorticellaa. They bear a considerable resemblance 

 to the branched vorticella, called carchesium a really 

 splendid object. I have seen it occasionally, and 

 Mr. Slack describes it very truly when he says, 

 ( ' A group of these 

 creatures presents 

 a spectacle of ex- 

 traordinary beauty 

 it looks like a 

 tree from fairyland, 

 in which every leaf 

 has a sentient life." 

 Ten or more bells, 

 with long thin 

 stems, exactly like the ordi- 

 nary vorticellas, will be seen 

 mounted on a stalk; and, in 

 the specimens which I ex- 

 amined, the stalk, which was 

 four or five times the thickness 

 of the other stems, had to a con- 

 siderable degree the contractile ' ' '"" P 18 ? 13 ' 

 power. It would draw the whole set of bells back- 

 ward with a force and suddenness quite startling; 

 and then, ever so gently and gracefully, the elegant 

 spiral stalk would unbend, and all the bells extend 

 themselves. And this can be well shown in the mode 

 of background illumination, when the beautiful stems 

 and vases, at all times transparent, and but slightly 

 tinged with a greenish or straw colour, appear as if 



