MICROSCOPIC WONDERS 25 



many branches, each ending in a single bell; and their 

 behaviour is characteristic of their kind. 



In some cases the whole colony is fastened on one single 

 stalk, and contracts in sections when occasion needs, for 

 each part of the colony acts in conjunction with any single 

 member of that particular group. In others the main stalk 

 contracts, so that all the branches are drawn down together, 



BELL ANIMALCULES 



1. Stentor polymorphus. 1 (6 ) and (c). Free swimming and multiplying. 



2. Ophrydium versatile. 3. Cortnurnia imberis. 4. Vagincola. 5. Vorticella. 



SUCTORIA 

 6. Acineta. 



whilst in the case of Epistylis the main stalk does not alter, 

 but each individual contracts singly. 



Sometimes a blundering free swimming rot?fer, or the most 

 exasperating nematode worm, is the cause of the sudden 

 retirement of a single member, a part or the entire colony 

 depending on the kind, but it often happens that these bell 

 animalcules seem totally indifferent to interruption, for the 

 writer has frequently seen a colony of vorticella pushed into 

 a different position by some unscrupulous interloper, and 



