98 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



November 1st, 1871. 



AV. Kitchen Parker, F.R.S., President, in the chair. Dr. 

 Braithwaite, F.L.S., contributed further remarks on the structure 

 of the Sphagnacese or bog-mosses. Confining himself principally 

 to the characters for grouping the numerous species into sub- 

 genera, he advocated the system adopted by Dr. Lindberg of 

 Stockholm, based upon those yielded by the form of the leaves 

 investing; certain portions of the stem and divergent branches. 



Mr. W. Saville Kent, British Museum, read a paper on Prof. 

 James Clark's Flagellate Infusoria, with description of new species. 

 In his communication Mr. Kent announced the discovery among 

 others of Prof. Clark's minute " collared " types {Codusiga, 

 Bicososca, &c.), first made knowu to the scientific world throuijjh 

 the ' Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History ' for 1866, 

 but not since corroborated by any European naturalist. Of the 

 eleven specimens noticed by Mr. Kent, five were identified by him 

 with American forms ; the remaining six, while referable to cor- 

 responding genera, offering well-marked specific distinctions. The 

 whole series are of exceedingly minute size, requiring a magnifying 

 power of 800 diametei'S and upwards for the recognition of their 

 structural peculiarities, the chief interest attached to them being 

 their striking resemblance to the ultimate cell-particles lining the 

 incurrent cavities of sponges, as clearly shown by Prof. Clark in 

 the calcareous, and since demonstrated by Mr. Carter in the 

 siliceous, groups. Mr. Kent expressed his dissent from Prof. Clark's 

 views in regard to the nutritive functions of 3Ionas and other 

 Flagellata, in the course of his investigations, he having observed 

 the former to engulf food at any portion of its periphery, after 

 the manner of Amoeba, while in the collar-bearing species it was 

 intercepted at any portion within the area circumscribed by the 

 base of that organ, there being in no case a distinct inouth as 

 assumed by Prof. Clark. In the discussion that ensued Mr. Kent 

 assented to the President's suggestion, that the Flagellata, in the 

 possession of one or more lash-like appendages, represented a 

 higher type of organization than the Foraminifera, and other 

 Bhizopodous Protozoa ; and expressed his opinion that the Spon- 

 giadsc, as a class, combined the structural characters of the 

 ordinary Rhizopoda and lower Infusoria, having superadded to this 

 a skeletal and aggregated type of organization essentially their 

 own. Mr. C. Stewart stating that he had observed an appearance 

 of three flagellate appendages to certain cells of Leticosoleiiia 

 botryoides under a magnifying power of about 300 diameters, 

 Mr. Kent accepted his statement as further corroboration of the 

 existence of a membrane us collar, which, under an insufiicient degree 

 of magnification, presents the aspect attested to by Mr. Stewart. 

 The entire series of infusorial forms recorded in Mr. Kent's com- 

 munication were obtained by him from a pond on the estate of 

 Mr. Thos. Randle Bennett, Wentworth House, Stoke Newiugton. 

 — {Xature. November 9th.) 



