120 Animalcules in the Winter. 



sailing in little fleets to all points of the compass. Baccillarice, 

 in sufficient diversity to satisfy Ehrenberg himself, are shooting 

 forth their intersliding rods, or splitting themselves into all 

 sorts of zig-zags. Various species of Gomphonema, Echinella, 

 and Cocconema, borne upon thread-like stems, are conspicuously 

 beautiful among hosts of Diatoms and Desmidece, while here 

 and there an isolated Closterium or Micrasterias, the only 

 green objects in the wintry landscape, shine forth like little 

 emeralds set in silver. 



To those who are only familiar with the spring or summer 

 scenery of the microscope, this almost total absence of green 

 is a very remarkable feature ; chlorophyll has evidently become 

 a scarce article, and the whole tribe of vernal forms, so beau- 

 tifully coloured by its presence, are here deficient. Euglena, 

 Astasia, Pandorina, et hoc genus omne, are sought for in vain, 

 although the Volvoces are represented by a pallid, unhealthy- 

 looking specimen of Sphosrosira. 



The Bhizopods are few and far between, a single specimen 

 of Actinophrys sol seeming to have become bewildered in the 

 crowd. The ciliated Infusoria, as regards the number of indi- 

 viduals present upon the stage, are much fewer than would be 

 met with in summer under the same circumstances — the trans- 

 parent nymphs of the corps de ballet, with their bewildering 

 maze of fantastic evolutions, have given place to less numerous, 

 but more important-looking characters in the masquerade. 

 Trichodina, under the aspect of aj gold-fish globe of the clear- 

 est jelly, ornamented internally with coloured bonbons, is 

 actively pirouetting with Coleps, in the shape of a drunken 

 beer- barrel; while an animated plum -pudding {Bursaria), 

 dances a Scotch reel with half-a-dozen Cyclidia, having 

 very much the appearance of transparent mince-pies, 

 during which evolutions various forms of Leuccphrys and 

 Paramecium, easily recognizable as masters of the ceremonies, 

 glide actively from place to place as if they were doing the 

 polite to the whole party. 



Nor are the Vorticellians to be omitted from our list of this 

 goodly company. Of these, several beautiful arborescent forms 

 (Epistylis, Zoothamnium) content themselves with gracefully 

 bowing and curtseying to each other like belles of dignified 

 deportment, while their brothers, Vorticella cyathina, much 

 more jovially disposed, seem with uplifted glasses to be 

 drinking to each other's health, until, unfortunately for them, 

 just as they raise their wreathed cups for " one cheer more," a 

 blue-looking Stentor (Stentor coeruleus) rushes right into the 

 middle of them, upsetting the whole group, and raising such a 

 commotion, that a dozen stewards of the ball might try in vain 

 to re-arrange the dispersed dancers. Still, however, the 



