NOTES ON SOME CANADIAN INFUSORIA. 309 



erable movement, bending the body into a circle, or even twisting it 

 to form a spiral, but still the movements were stiff and ungraceful. 

 The .so-called amylaceous corpuscles, (c) on account of the absence 

 of pigment, were remarkably distinct and almost tilled the body. 

 They were much elongated. Dujardin imagined these structures to 

 be cai'bonate of lime, but the occurrence of no effervescence on the 

 addition of strong sulphuric acid at once disproves that supposition. 

 As regards their amylaceous nature, some doubt exists in my mind. 

 The constant association of starch with chlorophyll in the vegetable 

 kingdom, and the similarity between the green colouring of Euylena 

 and that of plants, has no doubt to a certain extent led to the suppo- 

 sition. But, as far as I know, no direct experiments as to the 

 decomposition of carbonic acid gas by Eugleivi have proved the 

 colouring matter to be chlorophyll, and further, we have here an 

 individual containing no green colouring matter, and yet possessing 

 large numbers of the corpuscles. Iodine or Iodine and sulphuric 

 acid stain amylaceous substances of a dark baownish-purple colour, 

 and these bodies when subjected to both these substances presented 

 no such reaction, a fact, which, of course, militates rather forcibly 

 against the amylaceous theory. 



Guelph, January 25th, 1883. 



PLATE. 



n. = nucleus, c. v. = contractile vesicle, v. = food vacuole, ph. = pharynx, 

 h. = hood. a. = anal aperture. 



Fig. 1. — Metopus n. s. a. c. v. = anterior contractile vesicle. p. c. v. = 

 posterior contractile vesicle. Zeiss obj. D., oc. 4. 



Fig. 2. — Schyphidia inclinans, D' Udk. v 1 = food vacuole undergoing ab- 

 sorption. Zeiss obj. J., oc. 2. 



Fig. 3. — Cyclidium glaucoma, Ehrh. Zeiss obj. J., oc. 2. 



Fig. 4. — C. margaritaceum. Zeiss obj. J., oc. 2. 



Fig. 5. — Vorticella microstoma, Ehrh. Hartnack obj. 9, oc. 2. 



Fig. 6. — Euglena acus, Ehrh. C. amylaceous (?) corpuscles, e. = eye spot, 

 tn. — mouth. Hartnack obj. 9, oc. 2. 



