HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP. 



227 



ROSSENDALE RHIZOPODS. 

 No. 5. 



MOST of the genera of lobose Rhizopods, de- 

 scribed in my previous articles, are more or 

 less familiar to every student of pond-life ; but few 

 specimens of the genus I have now to describe, will 

 have been seen by any microscopist who has not 

 made a special study of these forms of life. I refer to 

 the beautiful genus Nebela. It is one of the largest 

 genera, and contains eight species, all of great 

 interest from the extraordinary form and arrange- 

 ment of the elements composing their fairy-like 

 tests. The characters, as given by Professor Leidy, 

 are as follows, " Shell usually compressed, pyriform, 



SFig. tgo.— Nebela collarit. 



Fig. 191. — N. collar is. 



transparent, colourless, (?) with or without appen- 

 dages, composed of cancellated membrane, or of 

 peculiar intrinsic elements of variable form and size, 

 mostly of circular or oval disks ; of narrow rect- 

 angular plates or rods ; or of thin, less regular, 

 angular plates, often almost exclusively of one or the 

 other, sometimes of two or more intermingled in 

 variable proportions ; sometimes of chitinoid mem- 

 brane incorporated with more or less extrinsic 

 ■ elements ; and sometimes of these entirely, as in 

 .Difflugia. Mouth inferior, terminal, oval. Sarcode 

 • colourless ; in form, constitution, and arrangement, 

 . as in Difflugia," &c. From these characters, it will be 



readily seen how much the genus differs, from all the 

 others previously described. This is further ex- 

 emplified in its habitat. I have never found a single 

 representative of the genus during the twenty years I 

 have been an assiduous collector, in any of the wells, 

 ponds, ditches or other waters I have regularly 

 visited. It is an inhabitant of sphagnous swamps, 

 and is generally found in great numbers in such 

 situations. Rossendale being a hilly district, with a 

 good natural drainage, assisted by art, I was appre- 

 hensive that I should be unable to claim this desirable 

 Rhizopod ; but as I knew of a small boggy spot about 

 a mile from my house, one bitterly cold afternoon at 

 the end of October I set off, armed only with a 

 wide-mouthed bottle, determined to put the ques,tion 



Fig. x<)8.— M collarit. 



Fig. 193.— iV^. collaris. 



Fig. 194.— i\7'. collarh 

 (Side view). 



to the test. The side of one of our doughs had been 

 washed away, at one point, probably through the 

 action of a spring of water, and in the sloping ground 

 for about half a dozen square yards quantities of 

 Sphagnum grew among the coarse grass of the bog. 

 I pulled up a handful of the moss, and all dripping 

 as it was, dropped it into my bottle, and then 

 squeezed other masses of Sphagnum over it. On 

 returning home and quickly placing a drop of water, 

 with broken-down fragments of the moss, on a glass 

 slip, covering this with the usual thin glass, and 

 placing the whole under the microscope, I was de- 

 lighted to find scores of the beautiful Nebela, of 

 several species, and exhibiting most of the variations 

 so characteristic of the genus. Subsequent examina- 

 tions proved it to be very rich, not only in these 

 forms, but in several new ones, which;latter I reserve 



