36 THE MICROSCOPE. 



CHAPTEK III. 



MICROSCOPIC VEGETABLES. 



1. THE Microscope has vastly extended the 

 domains of the Botanist, and presents to his view 

 new and amazing discoveries in the vegetable 

 world. Two or three groups of minute plants, 

 thus brought under the notice of the human 

 eye, may specially engage our attention for a 

 little : the Desmidice, or Desmidiacece. (so called 

 from their division into symmetrical halves) ; 

 the Diatomacece (i.e. easily cut through or 

 broken) ; and the Volvocinece, (a name derived 

 from their rolling motion). 



2. The Desmidice. grow in fresh, the Diato- 

 macece in fresh or salt water. 1 It seems now 

 generally ruled that these organisms are veget- 

 ables, having, however, in their appearance and 



1 Carpenter on the Microscope, pp. 285, 320, 327. 



