HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE- G SSI P. 



fact that the tips of the lobes only are crowned with 

 short setae (Fig. 4 /) ; whereas, with F. Hoodii and 

 F. trilobata, there are double rows of setse that run 

 round the whole margin of their corona, a little below 

 which are three bands or rings (Fig. 4 r) of a brown 

 colour. The colour is due to granules floating in the 

 fluid between the outer and inner membranes when 

 viewed with transmitted light ; but if examined as an 

 opaque object, with reflected light, the colour of the 

 rings is white. (Hence the reason it has been called 

 F. anmilata.) 



At the bottom of the corona, just under the third 

 ring, is the vestibule (Fig. 4 %<), where is visible (in a 

 good light) a contractile collar, with a horse-shoe- 

 shaped rim, clothed with vibratile cilia (Fig. 4 cc), 



lips of the buccal orifice dart forward with a snap, and 

 the prey is forced down, one by one, through the tube 

 into the crop. The little victims may be observed 

 wriggling about within the crop until they are caught 

 by a pair of curved jaws which are situated at the 

 bottom of the crop, and the entrance to the stomach 

 (Fig. 4 /), which is called the maxillary process. 



The action of the jaws is an upward motion, and 

 at the same time they open out to seize the food and 

 drag it into the stomach. It is indeed interesting to 

 witness the operation. Sometimes the jaws close on 

 the spherical body of a monad a little below its 

 centre ; and when it so happens that the jaws fail to 

 clutch it, the spherical body rebounds back into the 

 crop, just as a person grasping at an indiarubber 



' 



, 



Fit. 4. — Floscularia anmilata, side view. 



Fig. 5. — Floscularia anmilata, ventral \ie\v. 



whose motion generates an inward current, which 

 carries with it infusorians within the expanded mouth- 

 funnel. When once a monad has entered into the 

 vestibule corona, there is no escape, for if it please 

 the palate of the floscule, its doom is sealed ; for, 

 although the creature will suffer at times one or two 

 monads to swim about in its large mouth, yet at any 

 attempt to pass out over the margin, the lobes are 

 drawn together, and the passage is closed. At the 

 bottom of the vestibule there is a slit with two lips, 

 called the buccal orifice (Fig. 4 bo), to which is 

 attached a tube that hangs into a chamber called the 

 crop (Fig. 4 c), which moves with an undulating 

 motion. 



When the floscule has got one or two monads 

 within the vestibule, the collar contracts quickly, the 



ball with finger and thumb a little below its centre, 

 produces the same result. This rebound shows the 

 toughness and elasticity of the cuticula of these 

 minute monads. 



The jaws assist very little in the mastication of the 

 food, as their function seems to be simply to drag it 

 into the stomach. Digestion seems to be performed 

 wholly in the stomach and alimentary canal, and 

 these organs are lined with vigorous vibratile cilia 

 whose operation serves to triturate the food. The 

 ovary is an oblong sac with spherical transparent 

 germs, but when an egg is well developed (Fig. 4,°-) it 

 is opaque and fills a large portion of the body cavity 

 (Fig. 4 e), and when ready for expulsion the creature 

 retires into its tube. The egg is at first forced half 

 out of the vent, the animal then moves slowly out of 



