F. AV. PnilXIPS — ox CUJETOSPIRA. 169 



" Ch(etof!ph-n .l/';/7/cr;'. — Slender. The first cilia of the scries upon the process 

 are somewhat, hut not remarkahly lousjer and stronger thau the rest ; wlien rolled 

 up. the ciliated haeillar process forms more thau one turu of a spiral. Sheath 

 Hask- shaped aud horuy. Hitherto fouud only in the open cells of torn leaves of 

 Litnna trisiilca, growing in fresh water near Berlin." 



" C/uctospira inucico/a. — Enclosing tube mucous in consistence ; animalcule 

 shorter and more compressed ; the rolled-up ciliary process does not form a 

 complete turn of a spiral ; the first cilia an; considerably larger than the rest, the 

 first one especially being nearly twice as long as most of the others." 



The animalcule we found does not altoa;cther agree with, cither 

 of these descriptions. It has, like Chcetosjyira Millleri, a horny 

 sheath, to which are attached a great number of brown granular 

 particles, as though they had been cemented to it. The case is not 

 imbedded in, but built outside the cellular substance to which it 

 adheres. The ciliary process resembles C. mucicola in not making 

 a complete turn of a .spiral. At the extremity of the process there 

 appeared to be a small projection as though it had a slight tendency 

 to be bilobed, like the allied genus Freia, but the animalcule main- 

 tained a very awkward position all the time we watched, so that it 

 was impossible to get a clear view of it ; therefore it is just pos- 

 sible that this appearance was due to a distorted view of the long 

 terminal cilium characterising C. mucicola. On giving the stage of 

 the microscope a sharp tap it would quickly withdraw within its 

 tube, after the manner of Vaginicola and other sheathed animalcules ; 

 as soon as its alarm subsided, the process would be slowly extruded 

 in a straight line, and then with a rapid and peculiar scythe-like 

 motion it would be swung round into the spiral form. The move- 

 ments of the cilia very much resemble those of Stentor, but have 

 rather more of a vibratile character. 



The only notices I can find of the occurrence of ChcBtospira Millleri 

 in England are, firstly in a paper by Mr. J. G. Tatem, read at the 

 Quekett Club, March 27th, 1868, wherein he records it for the first 

 time as a British species ; secondly, in an article in ' Science Gossip,' 

 July, 1868, by Mr. F. C. S. Roper, who states that he found it on 

 the 28th of May, 1851, on Snaresbrook Common, which was five 

 years prior to its having been described by Mr. Lachmann, and that 

 he sent drawings of it to several naturalists, but none of them were 

 able to identify it. Possibly the animalcule may not be so very 

 rare, but its small size and extreme timidity or sensitiveness, which 

 causes it to retire with the slightest shaking, is probably the cause 

 of its being over-looked. 



Since making the above notes, I have this morning had the good 

 fortune to find another specimen quite close to the former ; the 

 sheath, which is imbedded in the cellular structure of the egg-case, 

 is lageniform in .shape, with a rather long narrow neck ; it is almost 

 identical with Mr. Tatem's figure, and the spiral makes two turns, 

 thus determining it to be Chaitospira MuUeri. The true species 

 has therefore been found as well as the apparent variety. 



