6 Transactions of the Society. 



have as they emerge from the opening head. In a few seconds the 

 lobes gently expand, the many folds and creases slowly disappear, 

 till at last the eye is gratified with the sight of a lovely diaphanous 

 tulip, the rim of which is fringed all round with delicate and 

 motionless hairs. 



Neither pen nor pencil can do justice to the exquisite grace of 

 this beautiful creature. From every point of view the flowing 

 curves of the trochal disk are charming, and its great transparency 

 permits of the whole outline of the rim being seen at once. One of 

 the lobes (that usually termed the dorsal one) is rather larger than 

 the others, and it is slightly curved over the mouth ; across each 

 lobe run delicate muscular threads for furling it. The expansion of 

 the lobes is doubtless produced by the transverse muscles of the 

 body, which, by compressing it, force fluid upwards between the 

 two membranes of which the lobes are composed. This can be 

 readily seen in F. eampanulata, in which the fluid carries along 

 with it numbers of granules, whose rush upwards to the lobes, as 

 the Floscule expands, is easily visible under dark field illumination. 



It was for a long time a moot point how the vortex was caused 

 which, setting down between the lobes, drew its prey to the 

 rioscule's mouth ; and at last it was made out that a horseshoe- 

 shaped row of very fine cilia (Figs. 1 and 2, a) lay at the bottom of 

 the lobes where they join the neck. If F. trifolium had been a 

 common rotifer, there would have been no difficulty about the 

 matter, for this row of small ciha can be easily seen in almost any 

 position, owing to the animal's great size and transparency. It is 

 unnecessary to describe in detail its other organs, as so far as I 

 have observed they are in no respect different from those of the 

 other Floscules. 



I will conclude, therefore, by hoping that Mr. Hood will not 

 leave Loch Lundie unvisited next summer, and that the skill and 

 perseverance which he showed when he fished up (E. Janus from 

 a depth of ten feet, -will often be turned to good account in that 

 admirable hunting-ground. 



