68 SUMMARY OP CUREENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



New Infusoria — O. E. Imhof * states the discovery in the Lac 

 du Bourget in Savoy of Dinobryon cylindricum n. sp. 



A. C. Stokes (of Trenton, N. J.) also records f a Vorticella, which, 

 on account of its peculiar and well-developed external investment, he 

 has named Vorticella vestita. 



" Body soft and plastic, broadly campanulate, widest at the 

 anterior margin, constricted beneath peristome border and posteri- 

 orly rounded at its junction with the pedicle ; when contracted, sub- 

 spheroidal. The whole cuticular surface is covered by a conspicuous 

 cellular coating which gives the superficial aspect a minutely reticu- 

 lated appearance, and the external margin a finely crenated outline 

 when seen in optical section. This investment is formed of a single 

 layer of cells arranged in equatorial series, the upper and lower cell- 

 walls being equidistant in each row throughout the whole length of 

 the body. The cells themselves are as colourless as the animalcule 

 and as transparent, their contents being invisible liquid usually con- 

 taining many dark-bordered, actively moving granules. When the 

 creature is in a weakened or dying condition the cell-contents are so 

 increased in quantity that the cells become extended and bubble-like, 

 the zooid then resembling a mass of froth. 



The peristome border is but slightly everted. The vestibular 

 bristle is well-developed and conspicuous. The contractile vesicle 

 pulsates at intervals of twelve seconds. The nucleus is band-like, 

 curved, and remarkably long, one arm extended across the body 

 anteriorly for almost its entire width, then bending and curving for 

 nearly an equal distance along the ventral side of the zooid. 



The pedicle is from six to seven times the length of the body, and 

 when retracted forms about seven coils which exhibit transverse 

 striations or wrinkles, particularly noticeable as it is extending. The 

 muscular thread is roughened at irregular intervals by clusters of 

 minute rounded elevations. Body 1/500 in. in height." 



W. Milne also records J one new genus and four new species from 

 brackish water : Tetramitus gyrans n. sp. ; Hexamita Kentii n. sp. ; 

 Longicilium flexicuneus n. gen. and sp. ; and Tillina harhata n. sp. 



Relationship of the Flagellata to Algae and Infusoria. § — G. 



Klebs proposes to limit the term Flagellata to the Euglenace^ and 

 Peranemese, which are again divided into the Euglenida, Astasieae, 

 Chloropeltida, and Scytomonadina Stein ; and discusses their struc- 

 ture, vital phenomena, and systematic position. The treatise is 

 divided into three sections : (1) monograph of the Euglenacese ; (2) 

 some Flagellata in the older sense of the term, belonging to the lower 

 chlorophyllaceous algse ; and (3) the fresh-water Peridine^. 



The Euglenacese are made up of the genera Euglena, Trachelo- 

 monas, Colacium, Ascoglena (Stein's Euglenida), Eutreptia, PJiacus, 

 Astasia, Bhahdomonas (two species of Stein's Astasieae), and Menoidium 



* Zool. Anzeig., vi. (1883) pp. 655-7. 

 t Amer. Mon. Micr. Journ., iv. (1883) p. 208. 

 X Proc. Phil. Soc. Glasgow, xiv. (1883) pp. 32-6 (1 pi.). 

 § Sep. repr. from Unters. Bot. Inet. Tubingen, i. (1883) 130 pp. (2 pis.). See 

 Bot. Ztg., xli. (1883) p. 595. 



