156 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



to me that it would be very interesting to watch the 

 entire process, from the division to the perfect 

 development, these being the finest specimens I 

 had ever had for the purpose. At A (fig. 92) is a 

 Vorticella cup, closed up, showing the first stage in 

 an approaching division, at E it is somewhat farther 

 advanced ; at c the division has taken place, and 

 they appear as two balls on one stalk ; at D the one 

 has opened the mouth of the cup, and the cilia is 

 again active round the rim ; the other still retains its 

 rounded form, and cilium is being developed round its 

 base. In the course of about an hour the cilium has 

 increased in length and activity. The body then 

 assumes an elongated form (see at e). It is then in a 

 few minutes whisked off the stem, apparently by the 



becomes a perfect individual. This was not only very 

 interesting to observe, but it most satisfactorily cleared 

 up the question of the origin of these long-shaped 

 ovules and that they were not evolved from the 

 Acineta. I have written out this observation some- 

 what at length, not that it is anything new probably 

 to some, but it was exceedingly curious and may be 

 acceptable to many of your readers who may not have 

 had an opportunity of so well watching it. 



I must now again refer to the little clusters of 

 Epistylis cups attached to the Alg£e as represented in 

 fig. 51 in my last paper, and also at fig. 89 in this 

 paper ; these clusters are of a species of Epistylis 

 which I cannot identify as specially named ; at first 

 sight they appeared to be those named in Pritchard's 



Fig. 83. 



Fig. 89. 



force of the cilium at its base, and off it goes whirling 

 about, the identical form of ovule I had before seen 

 (see at f) and the origin of which it was important to 

 discover. I was now enabled to watch its develop- 

 ment most favourably. I saw a number of these break 

 away, and in some cases they attached themselves to 

 the glass, as before observed, by the ciliated end, and 

 others buzzed about among the stems of the Vorticella, 

 very soon attaching themselves by their ciliated end 

 to the weed (see at g). 



This cilium at the base seems to be developed entirely 

 for the purpose of enabling them to whirl through the 

 water and find a place to settle upon, and then to 

 fix themselves by it, as it is then very quickly absorbed, 

 and a stalk begins to develop. In about a couple of 

 hours the cup opens and the cilium appears round the 

 rim, the stalk continuing to elongate (see at h), till it 



90. 



Fig. 91. 



Infusoria as the Epistylis microstoma, but upon 

 closer examination they do not appear to be the same. 

 As there were such numbers of these clusters on the 

 Algae, I wished to discover also, if possible, whether 

 these were in any way connected with the Acineta, 

 but thus far have discovered nothing to lead to that 

 conclusion. When closely examined they are clearly 

 a distinct species from the tree form ; they are of a 

 long vase shape, somewhat rigid, and the cilium is not,. 

 as in many species, round the rim of the cup, but is- 

 attached to a retractile organ, which is protruded 

 from the mouth of the cup and opens out a ring of 

 cilia which is held at a slight angle and in some 

 aspects appears like a lid (see fig. 89 a). The 

 body is somewhat contractile, and with the cilia 

 withdrawn, assumes a short thick figure. They 

 increase by fission, as I observed numbers divide 



