340 A Supposed New Acineta. 



or pleasure ground. It was built last summer, and answers 

 admirably, being 10 feet clear in diameter inside, and 10 feet 

 6 inches high to the apex of its roof, which is conical and 

 opens to every part of the sky, from the horizon to the zenith. 

 Although Mr. Bird's observatory cost certainly very little, 

 £14, that possessed by the writer cost him less than £6, 

 and it might be built anywhere for £7. As the luxury of such 

 a pleasing retreat to the student of the noble science of 

 astronomy is immense, it is presumed that many a shivering 

 dilettante would be glad to possess one if put in the way to 

 obtain it for so small a sum. The writer, therefore, would be 

 happy to publish, in a future number of the Intellectual Ob- 

 server, if agreeable to the editor, a full description of a cheap 

 and ornamental observatory, such as any village carpenter 

 could build in about a fortnight. 



A SUPPOSED NEW ACINETA. 



BY HENRY J. SLACK, F.G.S., 



Member of the Microscopical Society of London. 



{With an Illustration,) 



On the 22nd April I spent a couple of hours at Budleigh 

 Salterton, South Devon. At this little place the Otter enters 

 the sea, forming, for so small a stream, a somewhat large 

 estuary, which low water reduces to a mud flat, through which 

 the river runs in one principal and some subsidiary channels, 

 the latter, nO doubt, subject to much variation. At the time of 

 my visit, one of these little channels, a few feet to the west of 

 the principal one, was full of seaweeds, on which I noticed 

 diatoms growing. A tuft of fine weed, covered with Syncdra), 

 was put into a bottle, and on examination disclosed a number 

 of Cothurnia;, or creatures resembling Vorticellids, but in- 

 habiting elegant glass-like cups, supported on stalks. One of 

 these is shown in Fig. 1. These, although very pretty objects, 

 did not detain my attention, as I had often seen them before; 

 but I was surprised to find in other cups, not in any way to bo 

 distinguished from those in which Cothurnia} were living, a 

 creature differing from anything I had previously met with. 

 My first impression, <>n seeing a row of cylindrical and stiff 

 tentacles, was tliat J Lad found a small polyzoon; but, on 

 viewing if. willi a higher power, 1 saw that the tentacles wcro 

 i j * » t ciliated, and I could not discern a- t race of internal organs 

 proper to so high a group. Polyps the animals certainly were 

 not, and my puzzle increased. The Cothurnian lives in his cup 



