152 HIDDEN BEAUTIES OF NATURE 



and attain to a thickness of three-thousandth of an 

 inch ! ! It was owing to the discovery and subse- 

 quent re-discovery of this creature that Dr. Leidy 

 was impelled to pursue his investigations in this 

 branch of life, and which led to his writing the 

 standard American work on Fresh-water Rhizopods. 

 Surely such splendid illustrations of life on a very 

 minute scale deserve to be ranked as hidden beauties 

 of Nature. 



But what shall we say of fig. 43, the famous 

 Clathrulina elegans ? (Lat. clathrus, a lattice). This 

 creature possesses a latticed sphere which is only the 

 thousandth part of an inch in diameter ! ! The 

 sphere, too, is composed of flint ! ! This wonder of 

 wonders was first discovered and described by the 

 Russian naturalist, Cienkowski. He found it on the 

 water plant nitella, in a pond at St. Petersburg. It 

 has a long delicate stem, by which it attaches itself 

 to plants. It can send its fine lines of sarcode out 

 through the openings of the capsule and draw in its 

 nourishment. Clathrulina has been found in other 

 countries besides Russia. Germany, Ireland, Eng- 

 land, and America also claim it. Doubtless it is to 

 be met with all over the world, but owing to its 

 extreme minuteness it evades detection unless under 

 high powers. Like other rhizopods already noticed, 

 it thrives in swamps, and evidently likes the neigh- 

 bourhood of decayed vegetation. At first sight we 

 think we have found an exceedingly small actino- 

 phrys, so close is its resemblance to that radiating 



