96 THE PHYLETIC MUSEUM AT JENA 
comprising the Radiolaria, Thalamaphora, Diatoms and 
Desmids ; and call to mind the magical abundance of forms 
of life brought to light during the last half of the nineteenth 
century by deep-sea dredging. Here the key of science has 
opened the door leading to a new and sacred domain of for- 
mative skill. 
A special apartment of our Phyletic Museum is set 
apart for the purpose of cultivating the zsthetic value of 
organic morphology and for making it yield fruit. Some 
yeats ago, in my “‘ Artistic Forms of Nature,’’ I sought to 
bring together a collection of those charming though little 
known forms, especially of these peculiar to lower divisions 
of the animal and plant kingdoms. Toa still fuller extent 
the Phyletic Museum will promote acquaintanceship with 
these coy beauties of nature. Microscopic forms of life the 
naked eye cannot see, by means of drawings and models on 
an enlarged scale, will be represented in visible form. 
Among the larger of these lowly beings to be specially 
named are the stinging animals, the Cnidaria, which 
eesthetically have prominent claims. Moreover scientific 
interest and esthetic charm are linked together in these 
creatures. ‘There too will be found the Polyps and Corals ; 
and the marvellous Medusz and the Siphonophora, to the 
special study of which I devoted a full half century of my 
life. This of itself would be aclaim on me to find room for 
them in a prominent part of our new Museum ; and J can 
do so the more cheerfully, as their biology is of the highest 
interest for the development theory. An exceptionally 
beautiful portion of the exhibition will be the splendid 
Corals I collected on my travels to the Red Sea in 1773, to 
Ceylon, in 1881, and to the Indian Islands of Singapore, 
Java and Sumatra in Igor. 
It is gratifying that a number of influential voices gave 
assurance of approval so soon as my Museum enterprise be- 
came known; and that in course of a few weeks a sum 
nearly sufficient to erect the building was subscribed. It is 
