320 



DR. T. GOODEY ON 



surrounded by a granular portion, the bulk of the chromatin lieing 

 located in the karyosome, and the rest disposed in fairly large 

 gi'anules in the extra-karyosomic part. At first I Avas inclined 

 to regard the extra-karyosomic portion of the nucleus as a 

 macronucleus, and the karyosome as a micronucleus, taking the 

 organism to be a ciliate. But the comparatively large size of the 

 karyosome, and the fact that it occurs embedded in the centre of 

 the rest of the nucleus, seems to rule out its micronuclear 

 homology. Unfortunately, none of my preparations shows the 

 organism dividing, so that I am unable to indicate the behaviour 

 of the nucleus during these most important phases. 



(b) Systematic Position. 



After studying Klebs's ("92, p. 350) description and figures 

 of the organism Sjyironema multiciliatum, there can be no doubt 

 that my organism belongs to the same genus. It agrees in 

 possessing about the same number of flagella, which are similarly 

 situated, a posteriorly placed contractile vacuole, and in general 

 appearance is the same. Klebs's organisms measured 14-18 /j in 

 length by 2-3 /x in Avidth, whilst none of my organisms is less 

 than 20 jj, in length, and they are about the same as his in width. 

 This difl^erence in length does not appear to me to be sufficiently 

 important to warrant the creation of a new species for the 

 reception of my organism. Klebs describes and figures two 

 lateral spiral grooves commencing at the anterior end of the 

 body and extending backwards as far as the beginning of the 

 tail, and says that the flagella are inserted on the edge of each 

 groove. These grooves correspond, I believe, to the dorsal and 

 ventral surfaces of my organism when exhibiting its spiral 

 twist, for there are really no true lateral grooves, the body being 

 so thin. He made out nothing of the nuclear apparatus in his 

 organisms, but from their appearance, and the number and dis- 

 position of the comparatively short flagella, he looked upon the 

 creatures as probably forming a connecting-link between the 

 Ciliata and Flagellata, as the following quotation shows: — " Ich 

 halte es fiir sehr wahrscheinlich, dass diese vielgeisseligen 

 Flagellaten einen Ubergang zu den Ciliaten bilden und m'jclite 

 speciell die Aufmerksamkeit auf diese noch so wenig bekannten 

 Formen lenken." 



From the appearance and structure of the nucleus, 1 think it 

 is best to include Sjnronema in the Flagellata, though there is 

 something to be said for Klebs's suggestion of it being a connect- 

 ing-link between the Ciliata and Flagellata. The posterior 

 position of the contractile vacuole is a ciliate characteristic, 

 whilst the organelhe at the anterior end might equally be re- 

 garded as long cilia or short flagella. The forms which Klebs 

 examined were obtained from ditch-water, so that there is 

 nothing very remarkable in my obtaining the same organism in 

 cultures of soil. 



