Group of the “‘ Physemaria.”’ 5 
oral or inceptive one. Digested and other effete particles 
are likewise, I have ascertained, usually passed off from the 
same circumscribed surface. The function and properties of 
the hyaline “ collar’? I have found to be almost inconceiv- 
ably remarkable. By the employment of an amplifying 
power of from 800 to 1000 diameters it was revealed to me 
that this collar consisted of an exquisitely delicate film of sar- 
code, capable of expansion and retraction at the will of the 
animalcule—to such an extent, indeed, that it might be quite 
withdrawn into the substance of the body. In this structure 
a circulating stream was constantly in motion, ascending 
on the outside and descending on the inside, and identical in all 
ways with those circulating sarcode-streams characteristic of the 
extended pseudopodia of certain Radiolaria. Placing commi- 
nuted carmine in the water, this collar with its circulating 
current, assisted by the active movements of the flagellum, 
was found to constitute a wonderful and most admirably con- 
structed trap for the purpose of drawing towards it and arrest- 
ing passing particles of food. ‘lhe phenomenon presented by 
this trap in active action was as follows :—The rapid rotatory 
action of the flagellum impelling swift currents of water to 
flow from behind in a forward direction, caused all floating 
particles carried with it to impinge upon some point of the sur- 
face of the expanded collar. Adhering here, these particles 
were now carried on by the motion of the substance of the 
collar, and after ascending the outer surface, surmounting the 
rim, and descending upon the interior surface of the structure, 
became engulfed in the soft sarcode of the animalcule’s body 
embraced by the collar’s base. The accompanying woodcut 
(p: 6) illustrates clearly and in a diagrammatic manner the 
remarkable phenomena that accompany the feeding-process. 
In relation to the life-history and reproductive phenomena 
of this interesting collar-bearing group, I have satisfactorily 
ascertained that while that simple fissiparous method of 
multiplication common to all ordinary Protozoic organisms 
extensively prevails, a process of encystment and resolution 
of the entire body into granular germs or spores also plays 
an important part. The withdrawal by the adult individual 
of the characteristic hyaline collar, and its extension of pseudo- 
podie processes, have likewise been frequently observed, these 
phenomena being intimately associated with the function of 
reproduction. ‘The larval or initial condition of the collar- 
bearing Flagellata derived from the reproductive process is 
more simple in structure than the parent from which it sprung, 
it in some instances taking the form of an Ameeba and in others 
that of a simple flagellate monad. ‘Taken as a whole, my 
