ANIMALCULES 



329 



is Pond Life (is.), No. 65 of " The People's Books" (Jack), which deals with 

 many of them, and also with other microscopic water creatures. 



Any one can produce these Protozoa by leaving a little hay in water for 

 a few days, or allowing flowers to remain in water till dead. 



!/ 



BELL ANIMALCULES. i. Stentor polymorphus. i (b) and (c). Free swim- 

 ming and multiplying. 2. Ophrydium versatile. 3. Corthurnia imberis. 

 4. Vagincola. 5. Vorticella. SUCTORIA. 6. Acineta. 



Naturally the sea is the home of untold millions. The phosphorescence 

 often visible in the sea is due to one species, Noctiluca miliaris. 



Fresh, or drinking water, contains only small numbers, but any stagnant 

 water is found to be full. So the rain-water barrel, the wayside ditch, or the 

 duck pond will yield a host of " finds " to 

 the hunter with his microscope. The sim- 

 plest form is the naked lump of jelly which 

 appears to move by flowing along, known as 

 Amoeba. It obtains its food by literally 

 surrounding it, and it multiplies by breaking 

 itself into two. 



The Slipper Animalcule (Paramecium), so 

 called from its shape, swims actively by 

 means of cilia or lashes. 



The Swan Animalcule (Trachdocera olor) An Amoeba progressing. The direc- 



has a swan-like neck, which it can stretch or tion of m v e ment is tow ar ds the "; 



.,, T-, ,, ,, , n, the nucleus. 



contract at will. Frequently there may be 



noticed on duckweed a whitish filmy mass, which under the microscope is 

 seen to consist of hundreds of exquisite bells, each on a slender stalk. This is 

 Vorticella, a larger and more trumpet-shaped animal, generally green in colour ; 

 and fastened to a stem or leaf is Stentor. 



