96 MARVELS OF POXD-I,TFE. 



length. The Epistylis is, as its name imports, the 

 dweller on a pillar. The stem is stiff, or only 

 slightly flexible, and has no apparatus by which it 

 can be drawn down. The specimen mentioned stood 

 like a palm-tree, and the large oval bells drooped 

 elegantly on all sides, as its portrait will shew. At 

 times they nodded with a rapid jerk. 



The Carchesium differs from tlie common Vorti- 

 cella^ by branching like a tree, but the stems are 

 all retractile, although the trunk seldom exercises 

 the power. A group of these creatures presents a 

 spectacle of extraordinary beauty — it looks like a 

 tree from fairy -land, in which every leaf has a 

 sentient life. In general structure the bells of the 

 Epistilis and the Carcliesiuin resemble the common 

 Vofiice/la^ and like them may be seen with a power 

 of about one hundred linear for general effect, and 

 with a higher one for the examination of special 

 points. Pritchard notices three species of Car- 

 chesium^ and eighteen of Epistylis ;^ some of which 

 it is to be hoped will turn out to be only varieties. 



Towards the end of this month rotifers abounded, 

 and polyps were plentiful. Among the rotifers was 



* An interesting Epistylis. called Digitalis, from its bells re- 

 sembling fox-glove flowers in shape, occurs as a parasite upon the 

 Cyclops qicadricornis, a very common entomostracan in fresh-water 

 yjonds. At tliis moment I have a beautiful specimen, branching 

 like a bushy tree, and attached to the tail of a Ci/lops, who can 

 scarcely move under his burden, which is like Sinbad's "Old Man 

 of the Sea." 



