Here we are with the apparatus ready. We have transferred a few threads of the conferva from the bottle to the _live box_, spreading out the fine fibres with a needle, and adding a drop of water. The cover is then gently pressed down, and the whole placed on the stage of the microscope, to be examined with a power of about sixty. A light is thrown somewhat obliquely by the mirror through the object, the focus adjusted, and a beautiful sight rewards the pains. Our mass of conferva turns out to contain one of the most elegant species. Fine hair-like tubes of an organic material, as transparent as glass, are divided by partitions of the same substance into cylindrical cells, through which a slender ribbon of emerald green, spangled at intervals with small round expansions, is spirally wound. We shall call it the Spiral Conferva, its scientific name being _Spirogyra quinina_. Some other species, though less elegantly adorned, make a pleasing variety in the microscopic scene; and appended to some of the threads is a group of small crystal bells, which jerk up and down upon spirally twisted stalks. These are the "Bell Flower Animalcules" of old observers, the _Vorticellæ_, or Little Vortex-makers of the present day. Other small creatures flit about with lively motions, and among them we observe a number of green spindles that continually change their shape, while an odd-looking thing crawls about, after the manner of certain caterpillars, by bringing his head and tail together, shoving himself on a step, and then repeating the process, and making another move. He has a kind of snout, behind which are two little red eyes, and something like a pig-tail sticks out behind. This is the Common Wheel-bearer, _Rotifer vulgaris_, a favourite object with microscopists, old and young, and capable, as we shall see, of doing something more interesting than taking the crawl we have described. A higher power, say one or two hundred, may be conveniently applied to bring out the details of the inhabitants of our live box more completely; but if the glasses are good, a linear magnification of sixty will show a great deal, with the advantage of a large field, and less trouble in following the moving objects of our search. Having commenced our microscopic proceedings by obtaining some Euglenæ, Vorticellæ, and a Rotifer, we are in a position to consider the chief characteristics of three great divisions of infusoria, which will often engage our attention.