CILIATE FIBRILLAR SYSTEMS 201 



investigators including Kolliker (1864) and, according to Neresheimer 

 (1903), Haeckel's (1873) "Myophanen" should be so construed. 



It was between these longitudinal stripes, within the clearer non- 

 pigmented meridians (Biitschli's "Zwischenstreifen"), that Lieberkiihn, 

 in 1857, found a distinct contractile fibril coursing from the basal disc 

 forward to the adoral zone. Greeff (1870) confirmed these findings 

 and Engelmann (1875) made detailed studies on the refractive and 

 contractile properties of the fibers which have come to be commonly 

 referred to as myonemes. 



Four authors may be cited, among many others, for the descriptive 

 details of the fibrillar system of Stentor: Schuberg (1890), Johnson 

 (1893), Neresheimer (1903), and Dierks (1926). These have been 

 the main sources for the following brief review of this system. 



Schuberg (1890) made several important observations on the arrange- 

 ment of the myonemes of Stentor coeruleus and an analysis of the basal 

 apparatus of the membranelles. He found that the course of the body 

 myonemes, from the basal disc to the peristome border, was not con- 

 stant. Instead, some showed bifurcations, with occasional re-branching. 

 This branching of myonemes followed consistently a corresponding 

 branching of the longitudinal rows of cilia and their adjacent, non- 

 pigmented bands. Similar relations of bands, ciliary rows, and myonemes 

 obtained also for the peristome field. 



Schuberg further observed that the double row of cilia, comprising 

 a membranelle, was seated in an ectoplasmic basal platelet (""Basal- 

 saum"), itself bipartite, below which appeared a triangular lamella 

 ("Basallamelle"). The inwardly directed apex of this triangle was 

 continued as a fibril ( "Endf adchen" ) which was, in turn, united to all 

 other such end fibrils by a basal fibril. The latter then ran rather deep 

 below and parallel to the entire series of membranelles. 



Schuberg's account of Stentor's myonemes and his analysis of its 

 membranelles have been generally confirmed, with the exception of the 

 basal fibril. The latter was identified by Johnson (1893), Maier (1903), 

 and Schroder (1906). But Neresheimer (1903) and Dierks (1926) 

 are certain that, as such, it does not exist. It is worth noting that Schu- 

 berg's "Basalfibrille" has been widely cited in the literature. 



Johnson's (1893) work is not concerned primarily with a structural 

 analysis of Stentor's fibrillar system, but his observations were thorough 



