530 Transactions of the Society. 



XIV. — On Protospongia pedicellata, a new compound 



Infusorian. 



By Frederick Oxley, F.R.M.S. 



{Read 11th June, 1884.) 



This interesting organism was first discovered by me in a pond near 

 Snaresbrook, Essex, in the spring of the year 1882. I was search- 

 ing the numerous ponds in that neighbourhood for Volvox globator, 

 and happened to dip a bottle amongst some rushes in a quiet 

 corner, which appeared to be a likely place to find what I was 

 looking for. On holding the bottle up to the light I observed in 

 it a number of minute flocculent bodies, the nature of which I could 

 not determine with a pocket-lens, and therefore carried them home 

 for further examination. 



With the Microscope I found them to consist of colonies of 

 monads possessing collars and flagella, and connected together in 

 vast numbers and in rather close proximity to one another on the 

 periphery of some exceedingly transparent hyaline substance. 



Being out of health, and, moreover, having only a very slight 

 acquaintance with the group of Choano-flagellata, derived from Mr. 

 Saville Kent's papers in the ' Popular Science Eeview ' and 

 ' Monthly Microscopical Journal,' and from some specimens shown 

 me by my friend Mr. Charles Thomas, of Buckhurst Hill, I did 

 not at that time recognize that any new discovery had been made, but 

 I gave some specimens to Mr. Thomas which we examined toge- 

 ther, and also spoke of them to another microscopical friend, 

 Mr. 0. Livingston, who resides near the pond out of which they 

 had been obtained. 



In the spring of the present year, 1884, I again visited the 

 pond in company with Mr. Livingston and Mr. Thomas, and there 

 found the organism again in great abundance. Mr. Livingston took 

 great interest in the little creatures and examined them under very 

 high powers, and made measurements and computations from which 

 it appeared that the bodies of the individual monads are from the 

 1/3000 to the 1/2500 of an in. in length, the collars when ex- 

 tended being about twice, and the flagella five to seven times the 

 length of the bodies, and that the number of individuals composing 

 a colony amounted to from 10,000 to 20,000 or more. Mr. 

 Livingston was not able from Kent's ' Manual of the Infusoria ' to 

 identify the species, the nearest approach to it appearing to be 

 that described by Mr. Kent under the name of Protospongia 

 Hdckeli. He therefore sent Mr. Kent some specimens for identi- 

 fication. Mr. Kent considered the specimens undoubtedly new, and 

 interesting to him as tending to support the conclusion he had arrived 



