fi68 DESCRIPTION OF [Botaioria. 



chapters xvi. r.nd xvii. of the Ilicroscopic Cabinet. Fig. 476 roprc- 

 scuts a full-grown animalcule extended, with the wheels vibrating, 

 and the ciUTents visible when indigo is put in the water ; it is sup- 

 posed to be attached to a fixed body. Fig. 477 is an under view of 

 the same, with the wheels withdrawn, and the body contracted; 

 lig. 478 is another, extended, but wheels withdrawn, which has, 

 with figs. 479 and 480, which represent the upper portions more highly 

 magnified, been submitted to different degrees of pressure between 

 the plates of a compressor. In figures 476 to 478 ova are seen, 

 some are developed, and their eyes and oesophageal bulb visible. 

 The respiratory transverse vessels and tube, projecting from the neck, 

 are seen in the engravings. 



The following interesting observations of Dr. Morren, are extracted 

 from the Annals of Natural History, vol. vi. : — 



"The labours of the Roeper show that the cells of Sphagnum are 

 sometimes furnished with openings, which place their interior cavity 

 in communication with the air, or water, in which they are immersed. 

 This skilful observer satisfied himself that, when circumstances are 

 favourable, the Rotifer vulgaris exists in the cells of the Sphagnum 

 obtusifolium. This grew in the air, in the middle of a turf pit, but 

 Eoeper observed its leaves in water ; he docs not mention whether 

 the infusorial animalcule came from thence, or whether it was pre- 

 viously contained in the cavities of the cells. The general purport 

 of the paper seems to imply that these Rotifers exist in the cells of 

 that portion of the plant which was exposed to the air, and, in this 

 case, the presence of an animal so complicated, living as a parasite 

 in the cells of an aerial utiicular tissue, is a phenomenon of the 

 most curious kind in the physiology of plants, and the more so as 

 this animal is an aquatic one. 



"I recollected that the last year of my residence in Flanders, I 

 found, near Ghent, the Vaucheria clavata, in which I observed some- 

 thing similar. M. linger had already published the following details 

 respecting this plant in 1 828 : — ' Beneath the emptied tubercles, and 

 at several points of the principal stalk, at different angles, rather 

 narrower branches arc produced ; these branches are generally very 

 long, and greatly exceed the principal stalk in length. At the end 

 of ten or twelve days after their development, there arc seen, towards 



