THE 



MONTHLY MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



OCTOBER 1, 1871. 



I. — A Bare Melicertian ; ivith BemarJcs on the liomohgical posi- 

 tion of this Form, and also on the previously-recorded new 

 species Floscularia coronetta* By Charles Cubitt, F.R.M.S. 



Plate XOVIII. 



Introdudonj. 



Occupied in the prosecution of certain investigations on the 

 homological position of the members constituting the so-called Families 

 of Ehrenberg's Class Eotatoria, with the view to the establishment 

 of a correct natural Classification as the basis of a work on which I 

 am at present engaged, I find myself fortuitously placed in com- 

 mand of a field of operations in the instance of a small streamlet, a 

 tributary of Northbourne Brook, in Kent, overgrown with the 

 bladder-wort (Beticularia), which streamlet is literally swarming 

 with every member of the following genera of Ehrenberg's system, 

 viz. Stephanoceros, Floscularia, Melicerta, Tubicolaria, Limtiias, 

 and (Ecistes, together with several of the fresh- water polyzoa ; and 

 amongst the former I find a rare Form, or at aU events one which 

 has hitherto escaped the notice of observers generally ; and with 

 the object of establishing the correct position of this elegant Form 

 as well as that of Floscularia coronetta, it is incumbent on me 

 herein to review briefly the homologies of the particular Famihes in 

 which they will respectively be placed. 



Teeminology and Aspects. 



The Terminology and Aspects which have hitherto been em- 

 ployed, do not apply appositely to the several Forms embraced ; the 

 term lorica, for instance, signifying in its literal interpretation a coat 

 of mail or an armour, is illogical and absurd when indiscriminately 

 used to represent the simple hyahne investments of the solitary 

 Floscularians, the clustered forms of the Lacinularians, or even the 

 compound sheaths of the Melicertians. I have therefore adopted 

 certain modifications which will be employed throughout these 

 remarks ; and for lorica we shall substitute the term Vagina. The 

 word disk, as signifying alike the region of the tentacular crown of 



* ' M. M. Journal,' September, 1869. 

 VOL. VI. N 



