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the part mentioned, although so far from its month, the river 

 was about three miles wide ; it passed through the great central 

 plain of China, which was the great rice-growing country. 

 The rice fields were irrigated by numerous canals, from which 

 the surplus water collected into pools in which the sacred lotus 

 lily grew abundantly. These pools teemed with life, especially 

 Rotifers ; the sides of the weeds were frequently covered with 

 a kind of fluffy down on which could be seen new species of 

 Melicerta, Lacinularia, and Trochosphcera. The species which had 

 been described — Trochosphcera Equatorialis — was originally 

 found in the Phillipine Islands, and was so named because of 

 the row of cilia which formed a ring round it, dividing its glo- 

 bular body into two hemispheres. In addition to this he had 

 found one which he had called T. solstitialis, because the ring of 

 cilia was situated about in the position of one of the tropics, or 

 about midway between the equator and the pole. Another 

 new Rotifer found both in China and Australia was Megalotrocha 

 spinosa, a specimen of which he was showing under one of the 

 microscopes on the table, and both at Brisbane and in China 

 he had found two species together, Spinosa and Semilobata. 

 He also visited the Solomon Islands in H.M.S. Penguin, which 

 was carrying on a survey of New Georgia, and on landing upon 

 one of the islands he found a hole cut by the natives in the 

 stem of a cocoa-nut tree for the purpose of catching rain-water, 

 which contained about twelve or eighteen inches of water, and 

 in this he found Pedalion ; how it got there was certainly a 

 very curious puzzle. Brachionus militaris was quite common 

 in China. He had also found a Floscide which was first found 

 by Mr. Whitelegge of Sydney, and thought by Dr. Hudson to 

 be a variety of F. coronetta. Dr. Hudson had, however, 

 described it from a drawing only, and he thought he should be 

 able to show that it had a specific value ; at first sight it looked 

 very much like a Stephanoceros. He had tried hard to get a 

 specimen of Lacinularia pedunculata in which the colony was 

 attached to the stem of a plant by a peduncle apparently 

 formed of the feet of the various individuals twisted together, 

 but the only one lie was able to show was not mounted by Mr. 

 Rousselet's method, although the peduncle could be seen. 

 Another of the Rotifers winch he had procured was a species of 

 Bhinops, which was first found in the bogs of Ireland; it ap- 

 peared to be common both in China and Ceylon. 



