20 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST 



they usually take from three to five minutes to make one pellet. 

 The fringe of cilia round the edge of their lobes moves so rapidly, 

 with an undulatory motion, that it appears like a tiny chain 

 revolving round and round. In a good light the crushing move- 

 ment of the gizzard may be clearly seen. 



On the same weed (the Anacharis) was another creature, 

 well-named the Beautiful Floscule {Floscularia ornatci). This also 

 lives in a tube, but it is a gelatinous one, very difficult to see, 

 except with a dark-ground illumination, as it is of the same 

 refractive power as the water. The Floscule seems a nervous 

 creature, the least shake of the table, or change in the light, 

 sending it down to the bottom of its tube. When it emerges it 

 pushes out before it a bunch of long fine hairs, looking not unlike 

 one of our old-fashioned hearth-brushes ; then, if not frightened 

 in again, it soon unfolds its fringed lobes like some lovely flower 

 expanding in the sunlight. I think (under a really good micro- 

 scope), there is not anything to be compared to it for beauty. Its 

 long hairs glisten with a bluish-white lustre, and it looks like a 

 crystal vase filled with gems ; these being the desmids, Eugleiia 

 viridis^ and monads it has swallowed. The Vorticellce are well 

 known to all who have seen anything of pond-life. There are 

 different species, some of which are as large as the Stentors, and 

 can be well observed under a low power. I have frequently 

 found them on Cyclops and Daphnia, and I once found a large 

 water beetle completely enveloped by them. It is a curious sight 

 to watch a cy clops swimming through the water almost hidden by 

 a forest of Epistylis or Carchesium. When thus fastened to these 

 active little Crustacea, they seem to lose the sensitiveness that 

 makes them pop down at the sUghtest jar or movement of the 

 live-box. These Vorticellae, be it understood, do not prey upon 

 their hosts, they only look for lodging and provide their own board. 

 There is a creature, now supposed to belong to the Vorticellae, 

 that much resembles the Floscules, and is called Acineta. I found 

 it in the Amberley ponds among the colonies of Vorticellae. It 

 may be distinguished from the Floscules by having no gelatinous 

 case, and by there being no visible opening or mouth into the 

 interior. I found plenty of the Stylojiichia^ oval animalcules 

 surrounded by ciUa, and covered with styles both straight and 

 curved, the latter called uncini, or little hooks. It is most amusing 



