THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 7 1 
zling tints of the rainbow. Under such a spell, 
it is not surprising that it requires some mo¬ 
ments of cool reflection to fix the conviction 
in the mind that what we are gazing upon is 
an actuality and not a brilliant dream. 
“ In a former study we met with certain veg¬ 
etable fronds that were endowed with a show 
of independent motion akin to animal life, but 
these plants were fixed and stationary. In the 
Volvocma we first meet with the singular forms 
of vegetable life possessing the power of loco¬ 
motion as completely as any of the more high¬ 
ly-gifted races of the animal kingdom. Indeed, 
this gift, which had always been thought the 
exclusive distinction of the animal orders, was 
found in such perfection in these vegetable won¬ 
ders that the first observers placed them without 
hesitation among the animals—a mistaken judg¬ 
ment, that was only corrected by the searching 
tests of chemical analysis. 
“The Volvox globator is first, observed as a 
minute globe-like cell, moving quite rapidly, 
with a rolling eccentric motion, often suddenly 
reversed or turned to one side. Its body se$tns 
formed of jelly slightly clouded, in which are 
embedded a number of little greenish spots. 
