DISTRIBUTION. I I 



hunting grounds. Arrived here, the collector should be careful to secure 

 more especially portions of all the more finely divided plants, such as 

 MyriopJiyllum and Ceratophyllum, these affording favourite fulcra of attach- 

 ment for the sedentary species belonging both to the Ciliate and Flagellate 

 sections of the class, and being especially suited in consequence of their 

 slender contour for subdivision and transference to the glass slide or 

 zoophyte trough for examination. Living plants, however, by no means 

 exhaust the category of material to be secured. Dead leaves, from adjacent 

 trees, that have fallen into the water, and are passing rapidly into decay, 

 are often covered on their lower surfaces with the extensive slime-like 

 colonies of Vorticella campanula or Epistylis grandis. Specimens of the 

 almost always numerously represented Entomostraca, Cyclops and Cantho- 

 camptus, or higher crustacean forms such as Asellus and Gammartis, as 

 likewise all larvae of aquatic Insects, Mollusca, and even Annelida, should 

 be brought home and diligently examined, for some one or more of the 

 many parasitic or pseudo-parasitic species recently referred to. The 

 family of the Daphniadae or " water-fleas," as exceptions, are rarely the 

 entertainers of infusorial guests. 



Ponds of smaller pretensions, presenting only a superficial layer of 

 duckweed, or stagnant ditches with a surface of brilliant green or other 

 coloured slime, may always be visited with advantage. In the latter 

 instance, some representative of the social Euglenidse, or possibly Peri- 

 diniidae, is usually to be encountered ; while in the former one the pendent 

 rootlets of the floating duckweed will in most cases be found to support a 

 perfect forest-growth of Vorticellcs and other Infusoria. Restlessly wander- 

 ing among the floating leaves of this gregarious plant, numerous Oxytri- 

 chidae, Tracheliidae, and not unfrequently Urocentrum turbo will reward 

 research, while the interstices of the decaying leaves may be examined for 

 examples of the singular genera Stichotricha and Chcetospira. In the ponds 

 of our metropolitan parks and commons that so abound with various 

 aquatic Ranunculi, the various species of brilliantly coloured Stentors 

 or "trumpet-animalcules" are commonly met with, their social colonies 

 often forming thin coloured incrustations on the minutely divided leaflets 

 of the plants in question that are conspicuously visible to the unassisted 

 eye. Lastly, in connection with fresh-water habitats, the upland ponds and 

 marshes abounding with Sphagnum, Drosera, and other bog-plants, are rich 

 hunting grounds that have as yet been but very imperfectly examined, and 

 may be expected to yield a rich infusorial fauna to the investigator. As 

 the result, indeed, of a few brief hours recently spent by the author on the 

 outskirts of Dartmoor, the two new and highly remarkable Flagellate types, 

 described later on under the titles of Rhipidomonas Huxleyi and Spongomonas 

 saccuhis, were obtained. 



For the collector sojourning at the seaside, an almost equally unexplored 

 hunting ground is thrown open. Some of the most prolific habitats in 

 this instance are afforded by the living polyparies of the Hydrozoa and 



