466 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE 



the same material. The tout ensemble of this object is 

 very attractive and beautiful, and its history is a tale of 

 marvels. 



No wonder that Ehrenberg, supposing this form to 

 be an independent animal, gave it a generic and specific 

 name. He called it Acineta mystacina. For who would 



ACINETA. 



have suspected that this stiff and motionless object, with 

 its tufts of flexible but inanimate threads, had any connec- 

 tion with the sprightly vases which we have been examin- 

 ing? Yet it is the same animalcule, in what we may, 

 with a certain liberty of phrase, call its chrysalis condi- 

 tion! 



