1 84 HIDDEN BEAUTIES OF NATURE 



liness under the microscope, for recently a friend who 

 came in during the evening 1 , was so fascinated in 

 his examination of the creatures, that he became 

 oblivious as to time, and left about one o'clock in the 

 morning. Still, it was excusable, for this was the 

 first time he had ever beheld it. Mr. Slack's descrip- 

 tion of floscule may help us to form some idea of 

 the shape and movements of this most interesting 

 object : 



/She slowly protruded a dense bunch of fine long 

 hairs, which quivered in the light, and shone with a 

 delicate bluish green lustre, here and there varied by 

 opaline tints. The hairs were thrust out in a mass, 

 somewhat after the mode in which the old-fashioned 

 telescope hearth-brooms were made to put forth their 

 bristles. As soon as they are completely everted 

 together with the upper portion of the floscule, six 

 lobes gradually separated (I have only detected five), 

 causing the hairs to fall on all sides in a graceful 

 shower, and when the process was complete they 

 remained perfectly motionless, in six hollow fan- 

 shaped tufts, one being attached to a lobe.' Thus we 

 see how each person perceives objects under examina- 

 tion. If we could record the impression made on the 

 vision and mind of fifty different people, we should 

 find some new fact either in point of structure or in 

 methods of movement, as observed by each individual. 

 With creatures so very minute, it is not easy to find 

 language to express what we see. The accomplished 

 writer of Pond Life receives the mental impression of 



