55 



oval-shaped body, and telescopic in its form, and could, under 

 alarm, be quickly withdrawn into the body. After this alarm had 

 subsided, the tube was again put forth, when at first a sort of 

 horn, and sometimes two, were protruded at the top (Fig, 23, c), 

 as a sort of feeler previous to again displaying the wheels of 

 cilia. The jaws were placed at the bottom of the tube (Fig. 21, 

 22, b), and very plainly seen in motion, in the act of feeding.' 

 These rotifers appear to be lodged in the cellular tissues of the 

 plant, and at times they protrude their ciliated lobes just out of 

 the cell of the plant, while their bodies remain fixed. They are 

 very small ; I make them out to be only seven^thousandthsof an 

 inch in length. I endeavoured to isolate some of them, and to get 

 them clear of the decayed vegetable matter in which they were 

 embedded ; but this proved very troublesome, and I lost several in 

 the attempt. The telescopic form of the tube was very plainly 

 seen, either in the act of protrusion or retraction ; at times the 

 tube was withdrawn (the rotifer remaining in a state of rest for 

 five or six hours), and then again put forth with the ciliated 

 lobes, and continued to rotate for the same length of time, and 

 sometimes I have known them to continue in motion for over 

 twelve hours. 



The last that I had under observation were four on one piece 

 of the riccia. They kept alive and in motion without any 

 material change until May the 1st, when they all withdrew the 

 telescopic tube and remained on the weed. In this quiet state 

 they continued for fifteen days, when they again put forth a long 

 and transparent tube (Fig. 22), but no cilia, or wheels in motion, 

 yet the two horns were very prominent at the top. The jaws 

 were not visible as before, neither were the tubes of a telescopic 

 form as at first, but they bent and folded themselves down in a 

 worm-like form. In this slate they continued for three days, and 

 finally left the case and escaped into the water. I then lost sight 

 of them entirely, the oval-shaped case out of which they came 

 being left on the weed (Fig. 26). How the ova was first intro- 

 duced into the plant I was not able to make out. I closely 

 watched to see if they deposited anything in the form of ova, 

 but could not discern that they did. As the weed, on which they 

 had been, decayed and drooped to pieces, so also did the empty 

 cases. 



A description of these rotifers with drawings was forwarded 

 to the Royal Microscopic Society for inspection, but it appears 

 that no rotifer answering to these has hitherto been observed 

 or noticed as being found in fresh water. The freir ampulla (of 

 Claparede and Lachman) was pointed out to be the nearest in 

 form to them ; but that is a marine specimen, and the only 

 resemblance it had was in the form of the telescopic tube. As 

 soon as more living specimens can be obtained, they will be for- 

 warded to the Royal Microscopic Society, as from the sketches 

 and written description only, nothing definite could be made 

 out respecting them. 



