MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT POET ERIN. 49 



addition, Kofoid (' Diuoflag-ellata of the San Diego 

 Eeg-ion,' 190T) records A. lacustre from fresh water, 

 .4. aculeatum, a pelagic form from Naples, and 

 .4. sulcatum, which he took in a vertical haul from ninety 

 fathoms in the Pacific. On hunting through the few 

 scattered references to A. operculatum which occur, one 

 finds, however, that E. S. Bergh, in the ' Zoologischer 

 Anzeiger ' for 1882, states (p. 693) that Spengel in 

 December and January found it in huge quantities on 

 the beach at Norderney. Although, therefore, Amplii- 

 dinium operculatum has been recorded once before as 

 occurring in quantity, the occurrence appears to be a 

 sufficiently rare event to be worthy of notice; and, so 

 far as I can ascertain, the species, although known from 

 several parts of North-west Europe, has not been 

 previously found on the British coasts. I have written 

 to most of the marine laboratories (Plymouth, 

 Cullercoats, St. Andrews, and Millport) and to many 

 marine biologists, and have not been able to hear of any 

 British record. 



"It is, however, not an unknown thing for rare 

 Dinoflagellates to appear suddenly in some locality on 

 an occasion in phenomenal quantities. Torrey, in the 

 ' American Naturalist ' for 1902, describes the unusual 

 occurrence of a species of Gonyaulax on the coast of 

 California. Sherwood and Yiual Edwards, in the 

 ' Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Fisheries ' for 

 1901, tell how for two weeks in September a Peridinium 

 infested Narragansett Bay in such numbers as to colour 

 the water blood-red and cause the death of many fishes. 

 Finally, Whitelegge, in the ' Records of the Australian 

 Museum ' for 1891, gives an interesting account of a new 

 species of Glenodinium {G. ruhrum) which appeared in 

 such quantities in Port Jackson as to give the water ' the 



