108 THE NATUEALIST. 



and I should not be surprised if, during tlie winter months, the Tardigrada 

 (water bears) have their turn ; for one winter they were so abundant as to 

 supersede, in number, everything else. The common rotifer {R. vulgaris) 

 is cojnmon at all times of the year, and in all places ; and the little E. 

 macroceros, — first discovered and named by Mr. Gosse, which only seems 

 to be a variety of R. vulgaris, possessing a longer antennal process, — when 

 it does appear, is generally most abundant, and is to be found among the 

 loose conferva which grows upon the sides of the tank. But the marvel 

 is that when these things have had their run, however abundant they may 

 have been, they almost totally disappear. The Stentor (which, by-the-bye, 

 does not belong to the family of rotifers) is the most remarkable. You 

 may see the trumpet-shaped bodies of these creatures at one time studding 

 the plants, — to which, however, they have no permanent attachment, — or, 

 by means of their cilia, working their way through the water with a spiral 

 motion ; and when you look at your tank a week or two afterwards you 

 find that they have (as Mr. Slack expresses it) " gone to smash," by a 

 process peculiar to infusoria ; and which Dujardin politely describes as 

 *' diffluence." " The integument bursts and its contents disperse in minute 

 particles, that in their turn disappear, and scarcely leave a wrack behind." 

 This, however, cannot be the case with any species of Kotifera, — whose 

 organisation is altogether different from that of the ciliated protozoa, — and 

 it is difficult to account for the sudden disappearance of certain species 

 ■which have, for a time, held unlimited sway. 



But now as to the Floscules, The following are the generic cha- 

 racters. 



" Frontal lobes short, broad, knobbed, expanded ; ciliary setse very 

 long, crowded about the knobs, jaws each of two teeth." 



These creatures are each furnished with a thin diaphanous case, re- 

 sembling that seen in the very young Melicerta. It often happens that 

 this case can only be detected by colouring the water with indigo, or some 

 other pigment ; but sometimes in aged specimens, though very rarely in 

 F, camjjanulata, it is studded with flocculent matter about the base. F, 

 oniata is said to be the commonest of the species, but in this neighbour- 

 hood it is by no means so common as the other species which I have 

 named. I have never yet had the good fortune to meet with a specimen, 

 though a friend of mine assures me that he has. I cannot forbear quoting 

 Mr. Gosse's description of this lovely creature. He says : " It is far 

 inferior in size to Stephanoceros, and cannot compete with it in majesty 



