46 HIDDEN BEAUTIES OF NATURE 



cuts its way through liquid brilliants. A gentle 

 ripple is sufficient at certain times to cause the 

 luminosity to appear, but when the sea is absolutely 

 smooth there is no observable display. 



Now the, principal factor in this wonderful effect is 

 a minute organism, known as Noctiluca miliaris 

 (thousands of night lights), first described by Rigaut. 

 The jelly-fishes, sea-urchins, crustaceans, sea-ane- 

 mones, and most marine creatures, also have this 

 power of emitting light. The Noctiluca miliaris is a 

 creature a little smaller than the remarkable plant, 

 Volvox globator of fresh- water ponds, noticed in 

 Chapter XVI., and is about the sixtieth of an inch 

 in diameter. It possesses a whip-like tail or lash, 

 which, lashing the water, serves as an organ of loco- 

 motion. Myriads of these creatures form as it were 

 a thin sheet of phosphorescence spread over the 

 sea. 



Imagination is baffled in trying to form any idea of 

 the number of living representatives of even this one 

 family of life's children. Collectively they produce a 

 luminosity that is both pleasing and useful, but indi- 

 vidually they are hidden from us, and we should know 

 but little about them were it not for the microscope. 

 The little we do know does not include a knowledge 

 of the secret whereby the organism produces its 

 flash of light. It is surprising how much the powers 

 possessed by a very tiny creature can puzzle a phi- 

 losopher. We can with the microscope examine 

 these and other phosphorescent creatures, and we 



