THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



with a good microscope, a drop of water from 

 some pool rich in organisms. Suppose he has 

 nipped off the growing terminal bud of some 

 Myiiophyllum or NiteHa, and, having a little 

 broken it down with the point of a needle, has 

 placed it in the animalcule-box of the instrument, 

 with a small quantity of the water in which it 

 grew, selected from the sediment of the pool-bot- 

 tom. The amount of life at first is bewildering; 

 motion is in every part of the field ; hundreds and 

 thousands of pellucid bodies are darting across, 

 making a mazy confusion of lines. Some are mere 

 immensurable points without apparent form or 

 diameter; others are definable and of exceedingly 

 various shapes. Aggregations of little transpar- 

 ent pears,* clinging together by their stalks so as 

 to form balls, go revolving merrily through their 

 waste of waters. Presently one of the pears 

 severs its connexion with the family, and sets out 

 on a voyage on its own individual responsibility ; 

 then another parts company; and you see that 

 there are plenty more of the same sort, roving 

 singly as well as in clusters; little tops of clear 

 jelly with a few specks in the interior. Here 

 comes rolling by, with majestic slowness, a globe 

 of glass, with sixteen emeralds imbedded in its 

 substance, symmetrically arranged,! each emerald 

 carrying a tiny ruby at one end ; a most charming 

 group. Elegant forms,}: resembling fishes, or bat- 

 tledores, or poplar-leaves, for they are of many 

 kinds, all of a rich opaque green hue, with a large 

 transparent orange-coloured spot, wriggle slug- 

 gishly by, the leaves now and then rolling them- 

 selves up spirally, and progressing in a cork-screw 

 fashion. Disks of clear jelly§ are seen, which are 

 continually altering their outline, so that you 



* Uvella. t Eudorina. t Eugle.na. § Amoeba. 

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