OF THE FLOSCULARI^A. 667 



body, tapering towards the base so as to form a long pedicle, by which they 

 affix themselves to solid bodies. Their mouths are furnished with horny jaws. 

 Speaking of their affinities, he remarks, '' The Flosculariens, like the MeH- 

 certiens, also have a certain affinity in form with the Yorticelliens and the 

 Stentors, and also with the Campanularue among polypes. They live in the 

 same way, fixed to water-plants by the pedicle of their campanulate body, the 

 margin of which presents five or six lobes, terminated by appendages or ciha, 

 without, however, any indication of a vibratile movement. At the bottom of 

 this wide opening is situated the mouth, provided with jaws attached to a 

 muscular bulb, less frequent and regular in its movements than the other 

 Rotatoria. In Floscularia the jaws are simple, and the lobes of the (anterior) 

 margin short, but with long radiating cilia ; whilst in StepTianoceros the jaws 

 are compound, and the marginal lobes veiy long and covered with short 

 cUia." Dujardin states fui^ther, that the gelatinous case of Floscularia may 

 disappear, and therefore cannot be used as a generic distinction, either in the 

 case of that genus or indeed of the other genera included in Ehrenberg's 

 family of the same name. Entertaining this opinion of the differences of the 

 gelatinous envelope being accidental, not constant, Dujardin rejects the genus 

 Limnias as not distinct from Lacinularia, whilst he denies that the latter is 

 generically distinct from Megalotroclia — a conclusion in which Huxley is dis- 

 posed to agree with the French natm-alist. Of the remaining genera of 

 Ehrenberg's family Flosculariaea, viz. Tuhicolaria, Lacinularia, and Melicerta, 

 to which he adds Ptygura, already described, Dujardin constitutes a family 

 which he terms Melicertiens. In some of these objections there is force. 

 Floscularia and Steplianoceros undoubtedly differ from the remaining genera 

 in the form assumed by ciliated appendages supposed to represent the trochal 

 disk of Melicerta and Lacinularia. Gosse states that in Floscularia rotation 

 is accomplished, not by the tufts of long setee, but by cilia set on the inner 

 surface of the disk, which cause the currents to converge to the mouth of the 

 animal ; hence, if the setigerous bulbs of Floscularia and the ciliated arms of 

 Steplianoceros are not the homologues of the true trochal disks of Melicerta, 

 the propriety of Ehrenberg's definitions is seriously impaired. But we see 

 no reason for rejecting this homology in the case of Steplianoceros merely 

 because the motion of the verticillate cilia is periodic and interrupted instead 

 of continuous : and if Mr. Gosse is correct in his conception respecting Floscu- 

 laria, it is equally entitled to its present place ; for whilst, on the one hand, 

 it is not essential to a trochal disk that its moving ciha should be arranged at 

 its margin, on the other, these cilia do not exclude the possibility of other 

 appendages, such as the pencils of setae in Floscularia, being attached to the 

 same organ, though such appendages may have no homologues amongst the 

 other Eloscularian genera. 



Dujardin's objection respecting the gelatinous case oi Floscularia is probably 

 based on error. Mr. Gosse has shown that in some cases it is so thin that it 

 might easily be overlooked, without great care being taken to discover it. 



Leydig of course rejects Ehrenberg's family of Floscularia, arranging the 

 animals composing it in his first group, along with (Ecistes and Conocliilus, 

 with which they have unquestionably a veiy close affinity. 



The creatures composing this family are undoubtedly among the most 

 interesting and beautiful of Infusorial animals. Their developed organiza- 

 tion, and singular habits, render them objects of the highest interest, both 

 to the naturalist and the physiologist; whilst their exquisitely beautiful 

 contour and the magnificent phenomena presented by the trochal cilia when 

 in active rotation, never fail to impress even the most careless of observers 

 with a sense of wonder and delight. 



