152 JOURNAL OF THE [JunC, 



A NEW SYMBIOTIC INFUSORIAN. 



KY DR. ALFRED C. STOKES. 

 {Received May 2yi, 1885.) 



Tlie following animalcule, from a little Sphagnum^ ^\\a.m\) in 

 this locality, is but one among many infusorial forms that crowd 

 the waters, most of which are undescribed, and new to science. 

 This especial one is presented here because of its unusual inter- 

 est as furnishing an apparent example of so-called symbiosis. 

 The chlorophyll corpuscles within the ectoplasm are so numer- 

 ous that they are in contact, thus forming an almost continuous 

 subcuticular layer. According to Brandt's doctrine of animal 

 and vegetable commensalism, or double parasitism, these chloro- 

 phyll corpuscles, which are, I presume, subspherical, are not 

 mere collections of pigmentary matter, but true unicellular algse 



>ciO 6 



Fig. I. Fig. 2. 



living a parasitic life so far as their position and their absorption 

 of the excreted products of the host are concerned, and at the 

 same time compelling that host to play the role of parasite in 

 appropriating the products elaborated by the plants. The theory 

 — the discovery, as its supporters call it — is a beautiful one, but 

 one which, in the opinion of the writer, is hardly tenable when 

 applied to the Infusoria, where it is claimed to be particularly 

 applicable. 



In the present example the subcuticular symbiotic algfe form, 

 as stated, an almost continuous sheet of vivid-green corpuscles, 

 as a rule completely obscuring the internal structure of the In- 



