ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 545 



the form of globular, ellipsoidal, or irregular cysts in the empty cells 

 of fresh-water conferva?. When ripe the contents are reddish, orange- 

 yellow, or bright red, including a dark spot. The endochrome sub- 

 sequently escapes in two, four, or more masses, which, as they gradually 

 escape from the cyst, are clothed at the edge with a fringe of cilia, 

 the dark body remaining still enclosed within them. The escaped 

 ciliated bodies must be regarded as zoospores, and are provided with 

 pseudopodia, moving about slowly with an amoeboid motion. When 

 two meet, and their pseudopodia come into contact, they slowly 

 coalesce, and this the author regards as a kind of conjugation. 

 The resulting bodies appear to be of the nature of plasmodia, are 

 endowed with a creeping motion, and may again coalesce. These 

 larger bodies attach themselves to certain algaa, ultimately become 

 encysted, and then again go through the same course of development. 

 Those zoospores which do not conjugate also become eventually 

 encysted. Attached to the conferva are also found cysts of the 

 Vampyrella of a different kind, resting cysts which remain for a time 

 in a dormant condition before any further development takes place. 



Vampyrella pendula and inermis agree with V. variabilis in 

 essential characters, while V. pedata differs in some important points, 

 and may, perhaps, be the type of a distinct genus. It is found, like 

 the two last species, attached to (Edogonium ; its zoospores have 

 neither cilia nor pseudopodia, but a long projecting colourless beak, 

 which is in front during the motion of the body, and appears to guide 

 its movement by bending in different directions, finally becoming 

 encysted, apparently without conjugation. These bodies have been 

 described by zoologists as rhizopods (Hyalodiscus rubicundus Hertwig 

 and Lesser, and Plaliojms ruber F. E. Schulze). 



A full description follows of seven distinct species of the genus ; 

 and the author concludes, taking all the points of structure into con- 

 sideration, that Vampyrella is most nearly allied to the Chytridiacese 

 and Myxomycetes, and must be regarded as a plant ; but that it 

 exhibits in some respects a transitional character to the animal 

 kingdom. 



Schizophycese* — W. Zopf has undertaken a fresh examination of 

 the lowest forms of Algae, with the special object of determining 

 whether the filamentous forms Scytonemeae, Oscillarieae, &c, and the 

 non-filamentous or Chroococcaceae may be different stages of develop- 

 ment of the same organism. Pure material was obtained by allowing 

 the filaments of the alga under examination to creep along the wall 

 of the vessel, and collect above the level of the water in tufts or 

 pellicles. These were then cultivated in boiled water or on disks of 

 porous clay, which had also been exposed to a high temperature, and 

 placed in large glass vessels in moist boiled sand. The dead cells of 

 water-plants, as Lemna, Utricularia, &c, and the shells of certain of 

 the lower animals, like Cypris, were also used as nurseries for the 

 filamentous Schizophyceas, and in them the formation of chroococ- 

 caceous forms was especially well followed out. 



* Bot. Centralbl., x. (1882) pp. 32-6. 

 Ser. 2.— Vol. II. 2 



