12 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[January, 



pond, is almost destroyed by the treat- 

 ment it necessarily receives from the 

 writer's pencil. It would demand the 

 artistic genius of a Leidy to delineate 

 with scientific accuracy the charming 

 symmetry into which the stems di- 

 vide themselves, the pleasing atti- 

 tudes of the animalcules, the dainty 

 grace of the entire arborescent ato- 

 my. As much as the writer's un- 

 skilful fingers can depict is exhibited 

 in Fig. 5.* 



Salpiiigceca sphcen'cola^ sp. no v. 



Lorica pedicellate, ovate or subglo- 

 bose, truncate anteriorly, the margin 

 not everted, posteriorly rounded and 

 somewhat narrowed at its junction 

 with the pedicel ; enclosed zooid 

 ovoid, slightly constricted beneath 

 the anterior margin, posteriorly in- 

 flated, occupying the centre of the 

 lorica and attached to it through the 

 intermedium of a thread-like, non- 

 contractile ligament one-half its own 

 length ; collar long and narrow^, some- 

 what more than one-half its length 

 projecting beyond the aperture of the 

 lorica; pedicel straight, rigid, equal 

 or subequal to the lorica in height. 

 Length of lorica 0.0006 inch, greatest 

 width 0.0005 i"ch. Habitat. — Attach- 

 ed to rootlets of Lemna in shallow 

 ponds in Western New York. Soli- 

 tary. 



When disturbed, especially when 

 irritated by tapping the cover-glass 

 with a needle, the body of the ani- 

 malcule within the lorica quickly con- 

 tracts into a spherical form balanced 

 on the summit of the secondary pedi- 

 cel within the sheath, after which it 

 slowly resumes its normal outlines 

 and protrudes the collar to the nor- 

 mal distance into the surrounding 

 water. 



Excepting this species, but two 

 others have thus far been recorded in 

 which the enclosed zooid is connected 

 with the lorica by means of a poster- 

 iorly developed pedicel, those two 

 being Salpingceca petiolata^ S. K, 



* By an error in drawing the figure has been made 

 with nine branches to the main stem. 



and S. Clarkii^ Stein. In the latter, 

 however, the thread-like prolongation 

 is not constant, those individuals pos- 

 sessing it being considered abnormal 

 or varietal. The discoverer of S. pe- 

 tiolata^ a salt-water species, remarks 

 that it may hereafter become advisa- 

 ble to relegate to a new genus all 

 these forms of SalpingcEca which are 

 attached to their loricas by an inde- 

 pendent pedicel. The remark may 

 become just when the genus becomes 

 unwieldy through a superabundance 

 of specific members, but until that re- 

 mote and impi-obable period arrives 

 it will certainly be better to so extend 

 the generic formula that the latter 

 may include these rare and interesting 

 pedicellate zooids. 



Thus far but a single individual of 

 the species here referred to has been 

 observed. It is delineated in fig. 6 

 magnified about 800 diameters. 



Salpmgceca lagena^ sp. nov. 



Lorica pedicellate, flask-shaped, 

 subglobose and inflated posteriorly, 

 attached to the pedicel by the evenly 

 rounded base, and produced anteriorly 

 into a cylindrical neck everted at its 

 distal extremity ; the enclosed zooid 

 taking the form of the lorica and 

 often completely filling it ; contractile 

 vesicles, two or more, posterioi"ly 

 placed and consiDicuous ; pedicel slen- 

 der, straight, twice to two and one- 

 half times as long as the lorica. 

 Length of lorica ^-^^ inch. Habi- 

 tat. — Attached to various algai and 

 aquatic plants from ponds in New 

 Jersey. Solitary. 



This form (Fig. 7) resembles Sal- 

 pingceca amphoriduim ^ J. Clk. lifted 

 on a long foot-stalk, and differs from 

 all known pedicellate species in the 

 evenly rounded contour of the lorica 

 base. It has thus far been met with 

 onl}' in one locality, a small pond to 

 which there is no visible outlet, whose 

 surface is densely covered by Lemna 

 polyrrhiza^ to whose rootlets and to 

 the net-work of the veins of decaying 

 leaves the loricae are sparingly at- 

 tached. 



Trenton, N. J. 



