This concludes the account of my very imperfect attempt to trace the life
history of a lowly plant. Its study has been to me a source of ever
increasing pleasure, and has again demonstrated how our favorite instrument
reveals phenomena of most absorbing interest in directions where the
unaided eye finds but little promise. In walking along the banks of the
little stream, where, half concealed by more pretentious plants, our humble
_Vaucheria_ grows, the average passer by, if he notices it at all, sees but
a tangled tuft of dark green "scum." Yet, when this is examined under the
magic tube, a crystal cylinder, closely set with sparkling emeralds, is
revealed. And although so transparent, so apparently simple in structure
that it does not seem possible for even the finest details to escape our
search, yet almost as we watch it mystic changes appear. We see the bright
green granules, impelled by an unseen force, separate and rearrange
themselves in new formations. Strange outgrowths from the parent filament
appear. The strange power we call "life," doubly mysterious when manifested
in an organism so simple as this, so open to our search, seems to challenge
us to discover its secret, and, armed with our glittering lenses and our
flashing stands of exquisite workmanship, we search intently, but in vain.
And yet _not_ in vain, for we are more than recompensed by the wondrous
revelations beheld and the unalloyed pleasures enjoyed, through the study
of even the unpretentious _Vaucheria_.
The amplification of the objects in the engravings is about 80 diameters.
* * * * *
JAPANESE CAMPHOR--ITS PREPARATION, EXPERIMENTS, AND ANALYSIS OF THE
CAMPHOR OIL.
[Footnote: From the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry.]