82 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE 



cells have their proper inhabitants, each dwelling in its 

 own; and each essentially formed on the same plan as the 

 "baby with the tucked-up knees" that makes the Sea-mat 

 for his cradle-house. 



In order to get a good view of the tenant here, you 

 must move the stage about till you find that the branch is 

 presented to your eye sidewise. Directing your attention 

 then to the lateral edge of a single inhabited cell, its sum- 

 mit is seen to protrude diagonally toward the inner side 

 (i.e. toward the axis of the spire), a tubular mouth, which 

 is membranous and contractile. When the animal wishes 

 to emerge, this tubular orifice is pushed out by evolution 

 of the integument, and the tentacles are exposed to view, 

 closely pressed into a parallel bundle; the evolution of the 

 integument that is attached at their base goes on till the 

 whole is straightened, when the tentacles diverge and as- 

 sume the form of a funnel, or rather that of a wide-mouthed 

 bell, the tips being slightly everted. They are furnished 

 with a double row of short cilia in the usual order, one set 

 working upward, the other downward. Their base sur- 

 rounds a muscular thick ring, the entrance to a funnel- 

 shaped sac, the substance of which is granular, and evi- 

 dently muscular, for its contractions and expansions are 

 very vigorous, and yet delicate. Into this first stomach 

 passes, with a sort of gulp, any animalcule whirled to the 

 bottom of the funnel by the ciliary vortex, and from thence 

 it is delivered through a contracted, but still rather wide 

 gullet, into an oblong stomach, the lower portion of which 

 is obtuse. An extremely attenuated duct connects this, 

 which is probably the true stomach, with a globular, rather 

 small, intestine, which is again connected by a lengthened 

 thread with the base of the cell. By an arrangement com- 



