350 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
of the body which are easy of access from without, 
such as the stomach and intestinal canal, and 
where, of course, all the indispensable conditions 
for the maintenance and reproduction of such life 
exist. Dr. Joseph Leidy, to whom we are in- 
debted for much new and interesting information: 
upon this obscure subject, found the most exten- 
sive entoparasitic flora with wonderful uniformity 
within the intestinal canal of a species of myriapod, 
and a species of beetle living in decaying stumps 
of trees. The vegetable forms he discovered in 
this singular situation are exceedingly curious, and 
notwithstanding their very subsidiary position as 
parasites, display as high a degree of organization 
as any of the larger conferve which inhabit our 
streams. They consist, in almost every case, of 
yellowish or colourless transparent tubes, varying 
from half a line to two or three lines in length, 
attached to their growing-place by broad disks, 
and proceeding in a straight or gently flexuose 
curved line to the free extremity. They are filled 
with exceedingly minute, faintly yellowish, oil-like 
granules, enveloped by much larger globules, ar- 
ranged like a string of beads along the whole 
interior. Exceedingly minute and obscure al- 
though these organisms are, they present many 
beautiful instances of means adapted to the end in 
view in their form. They are generally fixed upon 
