96 HIDDEN BEAUTIES OF NATURE 



in the left corner, is a well-shapen crown. Fig. 22 

 calls to mind a collection of gyroscopes. We have 

 no means of knowing whether these lowly creatures 

 gyrate, but they certainly give the impression that 

 they do. Light-houses (fig. 23), pendant lamps, 

 thistles (fig. 28), brushes, screws (fig. 29), and spheres, 

 are depicted with adorning surroundings, and yet 

 they are practically unrecognisable without a micro- 

 scope. Had we before us the whole of Haeckel's 

 collection, we should find all the way through ever- 

 varying designs and beauty not thought of by the 

 most inventive genius. But the professor tells us 

 that a whole lifetime is not sufficient for the ex- 

 amination of all the Radiolarian forms of our oceans ! 

 When all the land animals, the plants, the rocks 

 and minerals of the globe have been classified and 

 described, the oceans will continue to be a field 

 yielding discoveries of the most interesting character. 

 It is hardly necessary to state that such wonderful 

 abodes of minute forms of life are among the hidden 

 beauties of Nature ; and if these are so strikingly 

 beautiful in an untenanted condition, what must 

 they look like when the living creatures display in 

 addition their own coloured sarcode ? 



These are marvellous creatures. They are ex- 

 clusively marine, and belong to the great division 

 known as Rhizopods. They comprise many wonder- 

 fully beautiful forms, living and swimming in vast 

 multitudes in the surface waters of the ocean. They 

 are microscopic and the most complex in their 



