534 



SYSTEMATIC HISTORY OF THE INFUSORIA. 



Perty adds the following species : — 



S. rufum. — Has the figm'e and size of 

 S. Undiila, but is of a red coloiu'. No 

 articulation discoverable. In pond-water 

 about Bern, which had been kept 

 S3veral weeks. The claim of this to be 

 considered a distinct species is highly 

 doubtful ; for its only assumed charac- 

 teristic, viz. its red colour, is of no 

 weight, being in the Phytozoa generally 

 a variable condition, due to chemico- 

 vital changes in the organisms, and 

 ephemeral in duration. 



S. (?) Bnjozoon (Unger) (x\^i. 520- 

 531). — Coils consist of a thick body, 



with a delicate, wavj^, hair-like proboscis. 

 These creatures, found in the reproduc- 

 tive organs of plants, were called by their 

 discoverer. Dr. Unger of Gratz, spermatic 

 animalcules, and are described in detail 

 in the Regenshiirger Botan. Flora, 1834 ; 

 and also in the 18th vol. of the Nova 

 Acta Nat. Cur., Bonn, 1838. A con- 

 densed view of this subject is given by 

 Dr. Meyen in the Jahreshericht for 1838, 

 from which the appended translation is 

 made. The accompanjdng illustrations 

 (xvu. 520-531) were kindly supplied by 

 Dr. Unger for this work. 



" The spermatic animalcules in Sphagnum consist, according to the earlier 

 observations of Unger, of a thick body, and a thin filiform tail ; when in motion, 

 this tail being anterior, he considers it analogous to the proboscis (filament) 

 of many of the Infusoria. No true active motion of the body itself has been 

 observed by Unger ; but he distinguishes between the mere locomotive and the 

 rotaiy movements of the whole animalcule. The simplest motion takes place 

 in a spiral dii-ection ; and if the proboscis is contracted, the movement is 

 simply rotary. Diuing the locomotion of the creature, which proceeds in a 

 sj)ii'al maimer, Unger saw from one to three revolutions of the body in a second ; 

 and diuing rotation he noticed the point of the proboscis to be in a continual 

 state of tremor. Unger endeavom-ed to show that the spermatic animalcules 

 of the mosses are analogous to the spermatic animalcules of animal organisms, 

 although we find certain features in the former not seen in the latter, and 

 which may somewhat embarrass their classification, the chief of which are 

 the steadiness of the spiral dii-ection of the proboscis, and their manner of 

 movement. Lately, Unger has foimd spermatic corpuscles in the antheridia 

 of PolytricJium juniperinum, P. commune, P. urnigerum, and P. al])estre, as 

 weU as in Fimarla liygrometrka, Bryum cuspidatum, B. punctatum, &c. In 

 Polytrichiim commune, the corpuscles are found in very small hexahedi*al 

 cells with roimded comers. Generally, whilst in the cells they are motion- 

 less ; in some, however, a tremulous motion of the thin proboscis was seen, 

 and in others, again, a rotatory motion, interrupted at intervals. The dia- 

 meter of the delicate proboscis is 0-004 of an inch. In a few corpuscles, 

 isolated from their cells, a trembling oscillating motion of the proboscis was 

 perceptible." 



To these particulars may be added a remark of Dr. Unger, quoted in the 

 Ann. des Sciences Nat., which led to the introduction of the subject in this 

 work. 



" The doubts," Unger says, " which remain concerning some of the organs 

 of the animalcules of mosses, further increase the uncertainty as to their 

 situation in the scale of beings. From aU cii'cumstances, I am incHned to 

 place them in the genus S2nriUum of Ehrenberg, and to describe them under 

 the name of S2)iriUum Brgozoon.^' 



Mr. Yaiiey, in his article on Char a, in the 50th vol. of Trans. Soc. Arts, has 

 the following observations on the same structures : — 



'' From these cells " [in the globule of the axil of the Chara~\ " grow out 

 numerous clusters of long vessels, possessing the most extraordinary features 

 yet observed. \\Tien these are first protruded from the globule, if not quite 

 mature enough, their appearance is like dense or strongly -marked ringed 



