

DIRECTIONS 



COLLECTING, PRESERVING, AND TRANSPORTING SPECIMENS 



OF DIATOMACEJE, AND OTHER MICROSCOPIC 



ORGANISMS. 



1ARY H 



BY NEW YORK 



-AL 

 ARTHUR M. EDWARDS. 



Among the objects to which the attention of naturalists has 

 been recently directed, is a family of plants of peculiar interest ; 

 microscopic in dimensions, and of extreme beauty both in outline 

 and exterior sculpture : these are the Diatomacese. As far as 

 investigation into the natural history of these minute creations 

 has been carried, it has revealed the fact that, though differing 

 widely in many respects from larger forms of vegetation, they are 

 yet true plants, representing life in its lower stages'; where the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms would seem to shade impercepti- 

 • bly one into another. Whether such be really the case is, as yet, 

 undecided, but in these simple organisms we are presented with 

 favorable opportunities of investigating that and similar disputed 

 points, together with the phases of cell-life in its independent 

 form. The geometrical purity and grace of form in the Diato- 

 maceae have attracted to them much deserved attention, while the 

 extreme minuteness of their parts presents the student with ample 

 material for testing the best appliances of modern skill in the 

 manufacture of instruments for investigation. On account, there- 

 fore, of the imperfect state of our knowledge concerning them and 

 their life-history, it has become desirable to procure specimens of 

 Diatomacese from all parts of the world. To that end the fol- 

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