FLOSCULE AND VOL VOX GLOBATOR 187 



though they can readily anticipate some of his 

 exclamations, which are as follows : 



1 This is astronomy ; these are not microscopic 

 objects, for here are worlds revolving, some are 

 gliding along most gracefully, while others are spin- 

 ning on their axes the light shows me they are 

 translucently green, and that there are "other 

 worlds " inside of these, and they too are rotating ! 



The volvox plants our friend has been viewing do 

 most certainly resemble revolving worlds, hence the 

 name Volvox globator, yet they are individually only 

 the fiftieth part of an inch in diameter. 



A great deal of discussion has arisen as to whether 

 volvox is a plant or an animal. While several 

 naturalists of high position have classed it along with 

 animal life, the greater number agree in pronouncing 

 it to be a true plant. It is no easy matter, nowadays, 

 to frame a definition which will draw a line of de- 

 marcation between the animal and vegetable king- 

 doms. In our younger days we used to be told that 

 the great difference between plants and animals lay 

 in the fact that animals were free to move about, but 

 that plants were fixed to one spot, having no power 

 of locomotion. Since those times we have learnt 

 the fallacy of that definition, inasmuch as certain 

 plants, volvox among the number, have power to 

 move about, and are provided with organs specially 

 adapted to enable them to move ! While, on the 

 other hand, there are animals which are always 

 fixed, and are consequently unendowed with locomo- 



