478 j Miscelianeous. 
curred, as usual, isolated, of equal size, and with no traces of any 
genesic operations, until, on October 9, a single cast of the net 
furnished no fewer than three forms of Ceratia, namely C. tripos and 
its var. megaceros and C. furca, arranged in chains of two, three, 
and up to eight individuals joined end to end. There was a rolling 
sea; the boat was four or five miles off the shore ; and the depth was 
80-100 metres. These curious chains are probably formed at the 
bottom. The mode of union of the individuals is as follows :—The 
aboral or posterior horn (anterior of Stein) is inserted by a trun- 
cated extremity at the left-hand margin of the ventral depression of 
the succeeding individual, just at the point of termination of the 
transverse furrow. The individuals in chains were motionless, with 
neither flagellum nor cilia. 
This arrangement, and especially the apparent anterior evolution, 
would seem to approximate the Ceratina to the Diatoms and Des- 
mids, while other peculiarities appear to indicate a relationship 
between these creatures and the Woctiluce closer than that accepted 
by Stein, who places his group Scytomonadina between the latter 
and the Peridinina. Some large Ceraiva allied to C. divergens, and 
about 0:160 millim. in length, show remarkable characters. The 
protoplasm, protected by the carapace, is slightly rose-coloured, with 
a large spherical nucleus and some drops of oily appearance and of 
a bright chamois-colour; the creature is asymmetrical, and as if 
twisted upon its axis; the extremity (truncated as usual) of the 
aboral horn appears excavated intoa groove; and on the right-hand 
side of the ventral depression there is a strong projection in the 
form of a lip (Claparéde and Lachmann, Stein). All these charac- 
ters occur in a striking manner in the Noctiluce, especially at the 
moment of an ascent of these creatures to the surface of the sea :— 
flagellum (Huxley, Robin, Stein) ; envelope hyaline, resistant, some- 
times distinctly reticulated ; rosy coloration of the protoplasm, with 
a nucleus and oily drops of the same dimensions and the same colour ; 
well-marked asymmetry in the basal piece of the tentacle and lip 
projecting on the right side (Huxley, Robin). 
The analogy becomes still more manifest if, instead of spherical 
floating Noctiluce, we take the forms which have already puzzled 
Busch, and which are not found at the surface, but at the bottom of 
the vessels in which the products of fishing have been collected. In 
these the internal framework (formed, not by a style or bacillus, 
but by two kinds of glumes) produces, by its extremities, three pro- 
cesses or horns—two in front, pointed, and more or less recurved, 
and a third aboral, excavated into a groove. The size of these 
tricuspid Woctiluce (0-190 millim.) scarcely exceeds that of the large 
Ceratia from which they seem to have issued, to become subse- 
quently swelled up by accumulation of water in lacune originally 
independent of their protoplasm. In these Noctiluce there is often 
a prominent curved projection, which seems to mark the contour 
of the ciliary circlet. Of the formation of the tentacle the author 
can say nothing, and he remarks that the suggested relationship is 
purely hypothetical. Comptes Rendus, October 30, 1882, p. 794. 
