Through a Microscope: Something of the Science, Together with many Curious Observations Indoor and Out and Directions for a Home-made Microscope.Wells, Samuel
History
Through a Microscope: Something of the Science, Together with many Curious Observations Indoor and Out and Directions for a Home-made Microscope.
Wells, Samuel
Microscopes; Microscopy; Natural history
There is no end to the beautiful and wonderful things one can see with
the simple microscope. Only a few of the more attractive and easily
obtained of these are now to be mentioned.
To begin with, there are ever so many pretty flowers to look at. The
asterworts, that is, such flowers as the daisy, aster, golden rod,
dandelion and thistle, are particularly full of beauty. The blossoms are
all made up of a number of little flowers as in the dandelion; but the
shapes and colors and so forth, of the different kinds are exceedingly
various. Some, such as the asters and daisies, have two kinds of flowers
in the same blossom--flowers with strap-shaped corollas (like the
dandelion's) are arranged along the margin of the blossom, while in the
centre are little flowers with star-shaped corollas presenting a much
different appearance. Flowers of many of the Parsley Family, for
example wild carrot, wild parsnip and caraway, are quite odd. Very
pretty flowers are found among the grasses, sedges and common weeds. The
different trees as they bloom in spring--the maples, elms, willows,
poplars, sassafras and hosts of others--all have flowers that are
perfectly lovely. Most of these flowers need to be picked to pieces
under the magnifier to show up their full beauty. The parts of flowers,
both small and large ones, deserve attention. Frequently one meets with
remarkable forms.
Seeds are highly interesting. They are often handsomely marked with
series of pits or projections, grooves or ridges. One meets with many
curious appendages by means of which the seeds are carried off and sown
at a distance from the plant. Some, like the dandelion, have a parachute
attachment; others have wings to catch the wind, and others still are
covered with hooked spines whereby they become attached to the fur of
animals, there to remain until brushed off onto the ground.
Leaves and stems sometimes have on them beautiful hairs and oil-glands.
The wooly covering of common mullein, for example, is made up of
innumerable slender-branched hairs. These show best when a piece of the
leaf broken off is looked at edgewise.
If you examine the fruit-dots on the backs of the different kinds of
ferns you will be surprised to find how pretty they are and of how many
different shapes. Sometimes the fruit is not borne on the back of the
leaf but forms little clusters by themselves, which are sometimes at the
end of the fern, sometimes in the middle, sometimes on a separate stalk.
Mosses, lichens and sea-weeds are well worth looking at.
Early in the summer an exquisite little fungus called "Cluster cups" may
be found on the underside of barberry leaves. Hawthorn and other plants
have handsome fungi on them later in the season.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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