THE MINUTE. 



Boon come to the conclusion that they have no 

 particular form, but every imaginable one in turn. 

 The mass, which seems a mere drop of thin glaire, 

 almost or quite homogeneous, with only one or 

 two bubbles in it, pushes out points and projec- 

 tions from its outline, excavates other parts, 

 lengthens here, rounds off' a point there, and this 

 as long as we look at it, so that it never appears 

 twice in the same shape. Here a tiny atom* 

 arrests the eye by its singular movements. Its 

 appearance is that of an irregular ball, with a 

 bright spot near the circumference ; the whole sur- 

 face set with bristles projecting obliquely from the 

 periphery, not perpendicularly, much thicker and 

 stronger in the vicinity of the bright spot. It 

 remains in one place spinning round and round 

 upon its centre, sometimes so rapidly as to pre- 

 clude any sight of its distinctive characters, at 

 others more deliberately, displaying its bristles 

 and surface. Sometimes it rolls over in all direc- 

 tions, as if to let us see that it is sub-spherical, 

 not discoid. And now and then it takes a sudden 

 spring sideways, to a distance perhaps twenty 

 times its diameter, when it spins as before, or 

 else skips about several times in succession. Al- 

 together this is a very active little merry -andrew. 

 A great oblong purplish masst comes rolling 

 along, a very Triton among the minnows. He 

 suddenly arrests his headlong course, makes his 

 hinder-end take hold of a fragment of leaf, and 

 unfolds his other end into an elegant trumpet, 

 with one portion of the lip rolled-in with a sort 

 of volute, something like the beautiful African 

 Arum or Calln. The body now lengthens, and 

 goes on lengthening, until the lower part, which 

 is adherent, is drawn out to a very slender foot. 

 * Perhaps Trichodina grandimlla. + Stentor. 



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