GOO 



SYSTEMATIC HISTORY OF THE INFUSOIIIA. 



for each body veiy frequently divides itself, the two portions separating 

 entirely, — the gelatinous lorica forming only a separating wall. In this manner 

 thousands and millions of connected animal- cells are quickly formed, appear- 

 ing as gelatinous globular masses or balls. 



It is a misapprehension, on the part of Ehrenberg, of the actual phaeno- 

 mena, when he states that the large gelatinous ball formed by the multipli- 

 cation of Ophnjdia is the result of imperfect fission of the lorica; for, as we 

 have pointed out, the animalcules have no lorica or sheath in the sense 

 Ehrenberg intended, but are merely attached by a sort of non- contractile 

 stalk penetrating far in the interior, upon the surface of the gelatinous mass. 

 "When fully contracted, indeed, it is drawn down upon and sHghtly presses 

 into the soft mass, raising this as a rim around it ; consequently it is also an 

 error to say that the mass is composed of numberless little cells, seeing that 

 nothing like a ceU is constructed around the animalcules. Stein found within 

 the interior of the gelatinous mass numerous intertwining and twisted fibres, 

 which he concluded were vegetable parasites, probably of the family Lepto- 

 mit£e. Agardh and other botanists have described the gelatinous baUs of 

 Ophrydium as a species of Nostochinese, under the name of Nostoc pruni- 

 fonne ; but this is a great mistake, for no cellular or proper vegetable struc- 

 ture is present. 



Stein has added to the vaginated YorticeUina, or the Ophrydina, the genus 

 Lagenophrys ; and Dr. Wright {Ed'm. New Phil. Journ. 1858) the interesting 

 genus Lagotia. 



OpHHYDirM versatile (Trichoda inqui- 

 lina et VorticeUa versatilis, M.) (xxiii. 5, 

 6). — Body fusiform, tapering to a fine 

 extremity from behind the middle, and 

 anterior to it contracted into a cylin- 

 drical neck, supporting a funnel-shaped 

 head surmounted by an annidar periston! 

 with a ciliated rotary disc. The mouth 

 opens into a narrow and long ciliated 

 oesophagus. The contractile vesicle is 

 seated near its end ; the nucleus is long, 

 narrow, and twisted. The external sur- 

 face is thrown into close annular folds ; 

 and usually three longitudinal plaits ex- 

 tend from the posterior end as far as the 

 middle of the body, which disappear 

 when the body contracts. A subjacent 

 cortical lamina is evident, and, imbedded 

 within this, numerous chlorophyll utri- 

 cles, giving the animal a vivid green 

 colour. When contracted, the body as- 

 sumes the fomi of a long-necked flask, animalcide 

 and even the nucleus shortens itself, j 1-90". 

 In more complete contraction the figure j 



Genus TIT^TINNUS. — Ophrydina which possess divisibility of the body, 

 but not of the urceolate lorica ; the body is attached to the interior of the 

 sheath by a flexible pedicle (somewhat similar to the clapper of a bell) ; the 

 mouth serves both as a receiving and discharging orifice ; stomach-cells and 

 traces of a yellowish ova-cluster are more or less visible ; self-division was 

 known to Miiller. 



Tintinmis, as before noted, is a genus not admitted by Dujardin ; Perty 

 likewise ignores it ; and Lachmann {A. N. H. 1857, p. 119) feels the necessity 

 of excluding it from YorticeUina (using this term in a wider sense, so as to 



becomes oval or globular. Fission is 

 only longitudinal ; when an Ophrydium 

 quits its hold after fission, it swims away 

 by means of a temporarily developed 

 posterior wreath of cilia, just like a Vor- 

 ticeUa. It is found encysted, and, Stein 

 believes, in an Acinetiform phase (xxx. 

 7, 8). Yividly green, and associated in 

 smooth and globular clusters or masses, 

 which vary in size from a pea to a ball 

 five inches in diameter ; they are either 

 free or attached. Ehrenberg states that, 

 in May 1837, he saw hundi'eds of clusters 

 as large as the fist, which, by the evolu- 

 tion of gas, were at intervals elevated to 

 the surface, and driven by the wind to 

 the edge of the water. In sea- water; 

 also found by Brightwell in fresh water, 

 and in a small turf-pit, upon tendrils of 

 roots of marsh-plants, and the stalks of 

 the white water-lilv- Leng-th of single 



stretched out, 1-120" to 



