274 EVENINGS AT THE MICKOSCOPE. 



What is very strange, is, that the male has no shell, no 

 spines, no mouth, no jaws, no stomach, no intestines ; 

 no ciliary wheels ; its cilia, which are very long and 

 powerful, being arranged in one circle round the whole 

 front. Its movements are exceedingly fleet. 



Perhaps you are tired of Brachionus, and are ready 

 to cry out " Ohe ! jam satis ! " * Well, then, I will 

 turn him off and show you another elegant little crea- 

 ture the Whiptail {Mastigocerca ca/rinatd). I have 

 here in a bottle some stalks of the Water-Horsetail 

 {Ghara vulgaris), which I obtained in a pond a few 

 weeks ago. These I examine in this way. Taking hold 

 of the CJiara with a pair of pliers, I pull it partially 

 out of water, and, allowing it to rest on the neck 

 of the bottle, I cut off with a pair of scissors, or with a 

 penknife on my nail, about one-fourth of an inch of the 

 tips of three of four leaves, which adhere together by 

 their wetness. These tips I place in the live-box with a 

 drop of water, and having separated them with a 

 needle, I put on the cover, and examine them with a 

 triple pocket lens ; holding up the box perpendicularly, 

 not opposite the light, but obliquely, so that the field 

 is dark ; but the light reflected and refracted by the 

 animalcules shows them out beautifully white and dis- 

 tinct even the minute ones. The forms and some char- 

 acters of the middling and larger can be quite dis- 

 cerned thus ; for example, the slender tail of the one I 

 am now going to show you, I can thus see. The posi- 

 tion of any particular individual to be examined being 

 thus marked, it is readily put under the object-glass of 

 the microscope. I have found these leaves very pro- 



* " dear ! quite enough of this ! " 



