NOTOMMATAD.E. 43 



This species is much like the preceding : yet it seems sufficiently distinct. The 

 figure is truly cylindrical, \vitli a hemispherical head, and a short conical foot, each 

 divided-off by a strong fold. Both the folds are bounded body-wards by a distinct 

 tliiek n?d ring, the anterior by far the stronger; there is a third fainter transverse fold 

 just behind the mastax. The face is prone ; but its plane is curved, not flat as in 

 gracilis. The great obtuse cone which forms the foot has but two separable joints, of 

 which the hinder is notched behind, and carries two furcate slender rod-shaped toes, one- 

 third the length of the body, very slightly recurved at the tips, which are rounded. 

 This last character, which may seem unimportant, is, I think, constant. 



The whole visible head, in vertical aspect a perfect hemisphere, appears clothed 

 with short cilia, which extend also over the prone face, as far as the great constriction. 

 No eye was discernible. The toes are commonly held in mutual contact, the tips often 

 slightly crossed. 



The manners were much like those of the other smaller Furcularice ; it both crawled 

 and swam, but not swiftly. It was found in July 1850, in the sediment of a phial 

 which had been dipped five days before, from Oldham's Pond, Leamington. A few 

 weeks afterward, I met with another in the same phial, which well sustained my judg- 

 ment of the distinctness of the species ; while it gave me a few additional details. 

 It had an occipital brain, but again no trace of eye. The alimentary canal has a pair 

 of minute gastric glands ; it was traced clearly to the cloaca, which appeared on the 

 dorsal surface of the foot as a minute notch. The oesophagus, a long slender and 

 somewhat sinuous duct, leads from the back of the mastax to the stomach. These 

 two examples have furnished all the information that I possess of it.'— P. H. CI.] 



length of body, -,-7^ inch ; of toes, -g^jg inch ; total, extended, yj-j inch. Habitat. 

 Leamington (P.H.G.) ; Sandhurst (?) (Dr. CoUins). 



F. GIB13A, Ehrcnhcrg. 

 (PI. XIX. fig. 13.) 



Furcularia gibba Ehrenberg, Die Infus. 1838, p. 420, Taf. xlviii. fig. 3. 



[SP. CH. Body oblong, slightly compressed, convex on the back, flat on the belly ; 

 the gibbosity of the back abruptly falling off steep to the foot ; toes furcate, style- 

 shaped, straight acute, nearly half the body-length. 



For more than thirty years I had assumed that this species was well luiown to me ; 

 when at length I discovered that what I had supposed F. gibba was really a loricate 

 form, with a cleft dorsum, presently to be introduced under the name of Diaschiza 

 seviiaperta. Lately, however, I have met with an animal precisely agreeing with Ehren- 

 berg's description and figure. Yet I judge it highly probable that other observers have, 

 like myself, confounded the common Diaschiza with the rare Furcularia. 



As I have seen but a smgle example of the real Simon Pure, I can add nothing to 

 the pubhshed descriptions, except what may be gathered fi'om the figure.— P. H.G.] 



F. ENSiFERA, Gossc, sp. nov. 

 (PI. XX. fig. 3.) 



[SP. CH. Body gibbous ; toes simple, blade-shaped, wider vertically than laterally; 

 foot-joints wanting ; eye tuanting. 



I first observed this rather attractive species in July 1885, in water taken from one 

 of my window jars, where aquatic mosses had been growing for several months. The 



' Except that Dr. Collins, in his Note-book kindly communicated to me, has pencil sketches of 

 what he supposes to be this species, taken at Sandhurst, Berks. Its form, however, is much more 

 gibbous behind than that of mine. 



