322 PROFESSOR W. C. WILLIAMSON ON VOL VOX GLOBATOR. 



am not aware that any other observer has grappled with 

 the subject in order to supply the deficient knowledge. 



Havmg recently met with large numbers of this beautiful 

 object in a pond near Rusholme, I have subjected it to a 

 careful and protracted examination, in the hope of clearing 

 up some of the points considered to remain unsettled. 



As is well known, Professor Ehrenberg regards each of 

 the small green specks with which this organism is studded, 

 as a distinct polygastric animalcule, having an oral orifice 

 leading to several stomachs, an eye, organs of generation, 

 and divergent canals, which are supposed to maintain a 

 communication between it and the individuals by which 

 it is surrounded. According to this view, the Volvos^ con- 

 sists of an association of similar individual animals, uniting 

 to form a hollow sphere, a structure somewhat analogous to 

 that of the zoophytic polyparies. 



Though this interpretation has recently received the 

 sanction of Professor R. Jones (Encyclopcedia of Anatomy 

 and Physiology^ Article Polygasirica, Nov. 1847j^ and is 

 also adopted by some other leading naturalists, I confess I 

 cannot reconcile it with the appearances which the careful 

 use of a good microscope reveals. The details of its struc- 

 ture and development appear to exhibit less affinity with 

 the phenomena of animal than of vegetable life. Regard- 

 ing it as a plant, we have comparatively little difficulty in 

 understanding its history ; but it is no easy task to bring it 

 into accordance with our ideas of what is essential to animal 

 life, modified though these have been within late years. 

 Having little doubt in my own mind, that it is a true Con- 

 fervoid plant, I will proceed to explain the details of its 

 structure, in accordance with this general conclusion. 



Commencing with the examination of a very young in- 

 dividual, we find that it is a hollow vesicle, the walls of 

 which consist of numerous angular cells {Fig. 1 a), filled 

 with green endochrome, mixed with minute granules, the 



