NOTES AND MEMOKANDA. 437 



character. The tiny root of the Drosera and the half- 

 blanched leaves of Finguicula are paralleled by the absence 

 of a distinct alimentary canal and the abstemious habits of 

 the Planarian." 



It is worth while pointing out that a considerable difficulty 

 in relation to the view that the green specimens of Hydra 

 viridis and Spongilla Jlumatilis possess a vegetative nutri- 

 tion, is presented by the fact that side by side with the green 

 specimens occur very abundant colourless specimens, which 

 appear to be equally robust and healthy. Do these colourless 

 examples possess a colourless modification of chlorophyll 

 which decomposes carbonic acid ? or is the capricious distri- 

 bution of the green substance analogous to the capricious dis- 

 tribution of Haemoglobin, which is present, for instance, 

 in the blood of Planorbis whilst absent from that of its 

 associate Linnaeus ? 



In connection with this subject it is important to notice 

 that MetschnikofF has shown that in Rhabdocsel Planarians 

 the individual cells of the enteric tract engulph food-par- 

 ticles, and thus reduce the digestive processes of these 

 worms to the stage presented by colonies of amoeboid organ- 

 isms devoid of a true enteron, whilst Balfour has suggested 

 that the nutrition of the sponges is effected by the cells of 

 the ectoderm and by those of the endoderm ; not, therefore, 

 by aid of a digestive cavity. Mereschkowsky {' Ann. and Mag. 

 of Nat. Hist.,' March, 18T9) has adduced evidence in favour 

 of a similar process, not only in Sponges but in JNIedusse, 

 the latter of which he has observed not unfrequently to be 

 devoid of stomach and buccal aperture. — E. Ray Lankester, 



A New Genus of Protista.— Prof. Sorokin, of Kasan, de- 

 scribes under the name Gloidium quadrifidum in Gegen- 

 baur's ' Morph. Jahrb.,' Bd. iv, p. 399, a new naked proto- 

 plasmic organism devoid of nucleus, -03 mm. in diameter, 

 with vacuolated endosarc and hyaline periphery, which gives 

 rise to lamellar pseudopodia, and possesses a pulsating 

 vacuole. It was discovered in an aquarium containing 

 Oscillariae, Hormidia, &c. The specific name refers to 

 its habit of multiplication by quadripartite division with- 

 out encystation. Prof. Sorokin also observed the formation 

 of a cyst around single individuals, which was not followed 

 by division, but in many cases the organism escaped frcm 

 the cyst by means of a small hole, which it appears to have 

 the power of boriag in the test with which it has previously 

 covered itself. "" 



VOL. XIX. F J. 



