72 INFUSORIA. PART ITT. 



animals ; it is long and slender, of a sparkling green 

 with colourless extremities, a thread-like proboscis, and 

 a rich crimson spot. When it swims it rotates, and a 

 series of clear, oblong bodies are seen towards the head, 

 and another at the tail, as if they were imbedded in the 

 flesh round a hollow. 



The Loxades bursaria, which is a giant among its 

 fellows, has an ovoid body with green particles imbedded 

 in its interior. The outer skin is spirally grooved, so 

 as to form a kind of network, the elevated points of 

 which support the cilia with which its body is beset. It 

 has a mouth and gullet lined with cilia, which force the 

 food in balls into the soft matter in the interior, where 

 both the food and the green particles circulate, being 

 carried along by a gyration of the gelatinous matter in 

 which they are imbedded. 



A species of Peridinium, which is luminous at night, 

 and occasionally covers large portions of the Bay of 

 Bengal with a scarlet coat by day, nearly approaches 

 the character of the unicellular Algse. Mr. J. H. Carter 

 observed that at first, when these animalcules were in a 

 state of transition, their nearly circular bodies were 

 filled with translucent green matter, closely allied, if 

 not identical with, chlorophyll, which disappeared when 

 the animal approaches its fixed state, and a bright red 

 took its place : the Infusoria were then visible to the 

 naked eye, and the sea became scarlet. The scarlet 

 state only lasts for a few days, for each of these innu- 

 merable Infusoria becomes encysted or capsuled, and 

 either floats on the water, or sinks to the bottom and 

 remains motionless. The Euglena sanguinea has a 

 scarlet state analogous to that of the Peridium. It is 

 so minute and versatile that it is difficult to ascertain its 

 true form, which, however, seems to be a spindle shape, 

 with a pointed and blunt round head. In general it is 

 of a rich emerald green, with perfectly clear, colourless 



