1891.] Kewense, Moseley, in a new Locality. 145 



which they were confined. When they came into my hands they 

 were in a state of deliquescence, and formed a slimy mass with 

 a more or less definite outline. On examining this deposit with 

 a microscope, it became apparent that the various cells composing 

 the body of the animal had parted company. Amongst the 

 numerous glandular and other cells which formed a considerable 

 portion of the slime, certain large cells were seen, each of which 

 appeared to contain two or more bodies. At first I mistook these 

 structures for the ordinary rod-shaped rhabdites, so common in 

 Planarians. On a more thorough examination, however, I found 

 that what I had at first taken for two bodies was in fact but one 

 continuous structure bent in the form of a V; and that to one end 

 of the body a long whip-like appendage was fixed. Several of the 

 cells, which were provided with a nucleus, burst while under ob- 

 servation ; and they appeared to do so by the efforts of the con- 

 tained rods to straighten themselves ; at any rate, when the cell 

 burst, the rods straightened themselves, and the thread borne by 

 their ends was thrown out. The thread did not, like the threads 

 of the nematocysts of Hydra, stretch straight out, but assumed 

 a somewhat coiled disposition. The rhabdites, which were also 

 present, had very much the appearance of the thicker basal portion 

 of the flagellated structures, but were without the whip ; and it 

 occurred to me that possibly the rhabdites, which are so common 

 in the Turbellaria, might be derived from the basal part of the 

 flagellated structures. This view is, to a slight extent, supported 

 by the fact observed by Loman that, in the East Indian species he 

 examined, the number of the simple rhabdites and the number of 

 flagellated structures varied inversely. Loman is inclined to 

 regard the somewhat similar bodies, prolonged at each end into 

 a fine thread, which he found in his Bipalium javanum, as true 

 nematocysts, such as are found in Coelenterates and in some 

 species of Rhabdocoels, e.g. in Microstoma lineare and Stenostoma 

 Sieboldii. But whereas in the typical nematocyst the urticating 

 thread is coiled up inside the capsule, and is evaginated when 

 shot out, in the bodies found in Bipalium there is no capsule, but 

 a basal thick portion, either bent or coiled, and a thin thread 

 wound round this. That these organs have, at any rate in some 

 species, the same irritating properties as the nematocysts of Coe- 

 lenterates is shown by the fact that Mr Thwaites (IS) experienced, 

 when he applied his tongue to some living land Planarians in 

 Ceylon, " a feeling of unpleasant tingling," which " was accom- 

 panied with slight swelling. The sensations [were] very similar 

 to what is experienced upon a slight scalding." Mr Dendy also 

 tasted the Australian species, Geoplana Spenceri, and describes the 

 results as very unpleasant. 



The following is a list of the more important papers which 



