ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 



909 



it between the two genera Amplikonella and Pelomyxa described by 

 Greef ; with the former it agrees in the mode of formation of its 

 investment and of its pseudopodia, and in its violet colour ; with tlie 

 latter in tbe vacuolated character of its protoplasm, the possession 

 of refractive bodies, and in the peculiarities of its nucleus. 



The new species of Vorticellid next described is a species of 

 Vaginicola — F. biitscJiln — which is found attached to plants; the 

 body has green granules, is rounded posteriorly, and has no stalk- 

 like organ of attachment ; the shell is more or less depressed, and has 

 a lateral keel at its hinder end. The shell, which varies greatly in 

 form, is in all cases to be recognized by its wide orifice ; it is bright 

 brown in colour. 



Another new Vorticellid is Epistylis ophrydiiformis, which is 

 extraordinarily elongated, is attached to low and very thin branched 

 stalks, but is not rarely found separated. It is especially interesting 

 from the possession of an organ which is connected, on the one hand, 

 with the vestibule, and, on the other, with the contractile vacuole ; 

 this has the function of allowing the vacuole to empty itself into the 

 vestibule. It may be called the reservoir-apparatus, as it is clearly 

 a highly differentiated stage of the organ already seen in Carchesium 

 polypinum (Greef), and three species of Voriicella (Butschli). The 

 reservoir is a rounded vesicle containing a spongy network of proto- 

 plasmic filaments, has a tubular neck-like appendage, and contains in 

 its walls distinctly contractile bands, which appear to cross one 

 another. The sack, which is connected with the contractile vacuole, 

 expands on every systole of the vacuole. The bands on the surface 

 of the sack must be regarded as contractile protoplasmic bands, 

 which, on the principle of division of labour, have taken on the 

 duties which, in other Protozoa, were performed by the protoplasm of 

 the cell generally. On the whole, the reservoir may be regarded as 

 a regulator of the movements of the contractile vacuole. 



The last form described is AmpMtrema stenostoma n. sp., in which 

 the two orifices of the test are narrowed inwards in an infundibular 

 fashion, but have no external circular ridge or any constrictions. 

 The nucleus is large and vesicular. It appears to be most nearly 

 allied to A. wrightianum of Archer, and the differences between the 

 two forms are successively pointed out. Attention is directed to the 

 fact that the pseudopodia are sometimes distinctly lobate, and some- 

 times as distinctly filamentar, and once pseudopodia of the two kinds 

 were seen to be simultaneously extruded from either hole. The test 

 seems to have the chemical character of the cell-membrane of the 

 Desmidiaceae. Foreign bodies, in the form of small stones and 

 crystals, more rarely of diatom tests, are to be found closely packed, 

 especially at one i)oIe of the body. 



* Challenger ' Foraminifera.* — H. B. Brady's report treats fully 

 of the classification of the Foraminifera, with a sketch of the gradual 

 development of our knowledge from the time of D'Orbigny (1826) to 



* Report of the Voyage of H.M.S. ' Challenger.' Zoology, ix. (1884) 800 pp. 

 (115 pis.). 



