THE PREPARATION OF OIATOMACEM 



N nil the range of microscopic research there 



«is confessedly nothing which offers more 

 y^^- ~^h seductive attraction than that department of 

 botany which comprises the Diatom 

 Apart from the exolnsiveness with which 

 the microscopist makes his observations 

 and pushes his inquiries, there are charms 

 which attach to the life, the modes, and the 

 extent of the reproduction, and to the vast 

 results which follow the multiplication of 

 these organisms. There is also a pleasing 

 bewilderment in their large variety of form 

 and dimension, from the grosser disooidsto 

 the almost infinitely little living oham 

 and a perpetual delight afforded by their architectural beauty, 

 and by the marvelous and matchless delicacy of the defi 

 sculptured upon the siliceous skeletons of their frustulea The 

 man of science pauses in his work to pore over the tracery of 

 detail, and the philosophic student exhausts resource to effect 

 combinations in objectives and in oculars which shall serve to 

 bring the "markings " into view, and to perpetuate the picture 

 by photography. 



However greal the interest which life, habits and reproduc- 

 tion inspire, the structure and configuration of the Biliceous 

 part especially command attention: for this flinty framework, 

 resisting time and decay, alone endures, and is a recognizable 

 integral is ata of the earth's surface, while the softer 



organic portion, leaving the character ^i the Diatom to the 

 skeleton, La caught op and utilized in obedience to the law 



which compels organic matter to incessant action, whether it 

 mount successively higher or fall within the scope of the hum- 

 blest organism. This animated matter le>< ntity, and 



