go THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS, 
INFUSORIA FROM A WATER-BOUTT. 
‘Uae day having run out of Myriophyllum, &c., to examine 
under the microscope for my favourite pond life, I thought I 
would see if anything could be found in an old water-butt in my 
garden, the inside of which was coated with conferve, and in this 
rather unlikely place I found a good stock -of Saville Kent’s 
beautiful Choano-Flagellata, besides other Infusoria. The principal 
species were Codosiga botrytis, a Monosiga, which I think is 
gracilis, although inhabiting fresh water; JZ. brevipes, Salpin- 
gaca fusiformis, S. gracilis, Vaginicola cr ‘ystallina, and a few 
colonies of Desmare/la moniliformis of Kent, or Phalanx of Stein. 
The latter is most beautiful under careful illumination, and 
decidedly rare, as I only found about a dozen in some month’s 
search, as after my first success I made several raids upon the 
water butt. I should like to know from your readers if D. 
moniliformis is a rarity, as a friend who has been working at the 
Choano-Flagellata for some years had never seen this species 
before I gave him some of this conferve. I also found a few very 
curious monads that may be a distinct species, but more likely 
only a variety of C. dotrytis. In each case there were two Zooids 
joined like this— 
They seemed to be joined together by a kind of membrane— 
the substance of which seemed to be similar to the collar. is had 
one pair under examination for nearly twelve hours with an } Zeiss 
oil immersion, and the illumination very carefully attended to, so 
I think there was no mistake about it, particularly as I have 
examined hundreds of C. do¢ryé’s, and had never seen this structure 
before, and have only seen two or three like it since. I should 
much like to know if this has ever been noticed before. I find 
that the very best objectives to exhibit the collar well (which is 
not an easy thing to show properly) are oil immersions, and with 
the light taken direct from the lamp, as Kent recommends, and 
the flame focussed carefully on the monad. A friend of mine, 
who believes in dry lenses with narrow angles for this kind of 
work, was exhibiting at my house one night a specimen of C. dotrytis, 
with a dry } of 1ro’, and I asked him to allow me to put ona 
homogeneous } t by Zeiss, and he was quite struck by the difference 
of the picture, the oil immersion showing the collar magnificently. 
It is true these lenses are a little more trouble to use, but if they 
show these minute Infusoria so much better than dry ones the 
trouble ought not to be counted. I have the } and 74 of Zeiss 
in constant use, and hope before long to possess a zz of 1.38 
N,A. by Powell and Lealand for the same work. 
C.92 
