140 ANIMALCULES IN VEGETABLES. 



with the water, it has a lively green colour, and 

 green leaves are distinguishable which have formed 

 the leather-like pellicle. Ehrenberg has submitted 

 this meadow leather to a microscopic examination, 

 and has found it to consist most distinctly of con- 

 fervce, forming together a compact felt, bleached 

 by the sun on the upper surface, and including 

 some fallen tree leaves and some blades of grass. 

 Among these conferva lie scattered a number of 

 siliceous infusoria, including sixteen different sorts, 

 belonging to six genera ; besides three sorts of 

 infusoria with membranous shields, and dried speci- 

 mens of another kind. 



Ehrenberg submitted, a few years ago, to the 

 Academy of Sciences of Berlin, a foot and a half 

 square of natural wadding or flannel, consisting of 

 infusoria and conferva, which was found to the 

 extent of several hundred square feet, near Sabor, 

 in Siberia, after an inundation. This substance is 

 analogous to the " Meadow Leather," described 

 already, but ( is far more surprising, from its oc- 

 currence in such an immense mass. The flannel is 

 chiefly formed of unramified branches of Conferva 

 rivularis, interwoven with fifteen species of infu- 

 soria. 



On January 31, 1687, a great mass of paper-like 

 black substance fell with a violent snowstorm from the 

 atmosphere, near the village of Rauden, in Courland. 

 This meteoric substance, described completely and 

 figured in 1686-1688, was recently considered by 



