THE 
ARBORESCENT VORTICELLA. 
Generic Character. 
Body contraCtile, naked ; furnilhed with rotatory- 
organs . 
9 
Specific Character, &c. 
Compound bell-fhaped VORTICELLA, with 
retortile branched Item. 
Paniculated fea VORTICELLA. 
Tree or Arborefcent VORTICELLA. 
To thofe who are not particularly converfant in 
the hiftory of the minuter productions of Nature it 
muft doubtlefs be matter of furprife to be informed 
that the figures on the annexed plate are not the re~ 
prefentations of a vegetable but of an animal. 
Amongfi: the innumerable inhabitants of the waters, 
which the microfcope has enabled modern naturalifts 
to difcover, few are more ftrikingly curious than, 
thofe which conftitute the genus Vorticella. Thefe 
animals, in their general mode of life, their man¬ 
ner of production, and other circumftances, bear a 
great affinity to the Hydrae or Polypes; and indeed 
by many microfcopical writers have been called by 
the 
