0)1 Protospongia pedicellata. By Frederick Oxleij. 531 



at as to the relatiousliip between the Infusoria and the sponges, but 

 being on the eve of his departure for Tasmania he was unable to 

 pui'sue the subject. Mr. Kent also pointed out the fact, which my 

 friends' and my own observations have since confirmed, that each 

 individual monad is furnished with a short pedicel or footstalk by 

 which it is held in position in the zoocytium, this footstalk, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Livingston's measurement, being about the 1/10,000 of 

 an in. in length. 



Specimens, accompanied by a short description, were sent to 

 Herr von Stein, who gathered from the description that the 

 species was new ; but the specimens themselves were lost in the 

 post. A specimen mounted with osmic acid has, however, since 

 been sent, which has enabled him to confirm his opinion. 



The drought we have experienced for some weeks past has so 

 dried up the pond from which my specimens were obtained, that no 

 more are to be had at present, and I have not therefore been able to 

 satisfy myself that Protospongia pedicellata agrees in all points 

 with Mr. Kent's description of the genus ; but so far as my obser- 



FiG. 85. 



Fig. 86. 

 I 



vations have extended, it differs from P. HdckeU 

 in the possession of a footstalk and in the num- 

 ber of individuals comprised in a colony, fifty or 

 sixty only being the number assigned by Mr. 

 Kent to P. HdckeU, whilst I have not met with 

 any colony of P. pedicellata that did not contain 

 a thousand or more. 



I am indebted to Mr. Thomas for the 

 drawing accompanying this paper (fig. 85), 

 which is an attempt to represent the appear- 

 ance of a moderate sized colony as viewed by a 2/3 in. objective 

 with A eye-piece, but no drawing can give an adequate idea of the 

 beauty of the organism when illuminated by the paraboloid and 

 displaying its thousands of flagella in active vibration causing the 

 entire colony to sail slowly about the field of view. Fig. 86 repre- 

 Hcnt8 an individual monad very highly magnified showing the 

 footstalk. 



