1884.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



227 



cule's somewhat irregularly branch- 

 ing habit. 



Epistylis vagintda^ sp. nov. 



Extended body elongate-conical, 

 soft and flexible, twice as long as 

 broad, peristome widest, beneath 

 which is a slight constriction 

 whence the body gradually tapers 

 to the footstalk ; cuticular surface 

 finely striate transversely ; paren- 

 chyma colorless, minutely granu- 

 lar and enclosing small green food 

 particles ; peristome border thick- 

 ened, slightly everted ; ciliavy disc 

 elevated ; nucleus band-shaped, 

 transversely placed in the anterior 

 body-half; contractile vesicle be- 

 neath the peristome border ; con- 

 tracted body globose or subpyri- 

 form, with a small, snout-like an- 

 terior projection, and occasionally 

 thrown into several annulations 

 posteriorly, the extremity always 

 sheathing the distal end of the pe- 

 dicel ; foot-stalk dendriform, pro- 

 fusely and dichotomously branch- 

 ing, finely striate longitudinally, 

 irregularly articulate or not, the 

 primary pedicel about twice as 

 long as the branches which are of 

 a nearly uniform length and are 

 closely approximated. Extended 

 bodies ^4 5 to ^^^^inch long; height 

 of entire colony ^ inch. Habi- 

 tat. — Pond water ; on Cerato- 

 phyllMTTi. 



The pedicel, in its manner of 

 branching and in the comparative 

 length of the main stem and divis- 

 ions, resembles that of Epistylis 

 Jiavicans or the beautiful Dendro- 

 monas virgaria. The conical 

 form of the zooids, however, and the 

 transverse placing of the nucleus read- 

 ily distinguish the species from E. 

 Jiavicans. The posterior annulations 

 of the contracted animalcule are neith- 

 er characteristic nor constant. They 

 are more or less common with many 

 members of the genus, and, when some- 

 what modified, are used as a distinctive 

 feature of specific import with Epis- 

 tylis plicatilis ; but the peculiar for- 

 mation of a sheath over the end of the 



foot-stalk by the extremity of the con- 

 tracted body is characteristic and of 

 diagnostic value, and it was this little 

 sheath that suggested the specific 

 name. The pedicel, in common with 

 that of several species of the genus, 



seems to be a 

 favored s u p- 

 port for the 

 f o o t - stalk of 

 Podoph r y a 

 qua driparti- 

 }a, C. and L., 

 in one instance 

 two and in an- 

 other three in- 

 dividuals be- 

 ing observed attached to the luxuriant 

 pedicel of a single specimen. 



The cuticular striations are not con- 

 spicuous. It is only under favorable 

 circumstances or after manipulation 

 of the light, that they usually become 

 noticeable. 



Only a small portion of a mature 

 colony is shown in Figure 5 ; in 

 Figure 6 the extended, and in Fig- 

 ure 7 the contracted zooid are de- 

 lineated. 



