30 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
the rare ancl noble St&phcvnoceros Eichhormi. It was not till 
after years of search that I discovered this ; but, in April, 
1850, it occurred in considerable numbers adhering to the 
minutely pectinate leaves of MyriophyUum, pieces of which.were 
floating on the surface, and were washed on shore by the little 
wavelets that the breeze threw up. 
The next year, at the same season, I again obtained it at the 
same spot, but in less abundance. A year or two afterwards I 
tried again ; but the pond had been cleaned out, the Myrio- 
phyllum had been carefully scraped to the shore and carted 
away, and not a Stephanoceros have I been able to find there 
from that day forward. I learn, however, that it has been 
taken hi a pool at Highgate, and my kind friend, Mr. W. P. 
Bodkin, who furnishes me with the information, has promised 
to be on the look-out, in order to supply me with specimens. 
To the history of this fine species I now address myself. 
Stephanoceros and Floscula/ria are the most abnormal genera 
of the class Rotifera. They are very closely allied inter se ; 
but differ importantly from all other forms. I associate them 
into a family, marked by the following characters. 
FAMILY FLOSCULARIAILE, OR THE FLOWER 
ANIMALCULES. 
Animal free in infancy, permanently fixed in adult age, 
undergoing considerable change in form after birth, inhabiting 
a gelatinous tube which is excreted from the skin. Front 
produced into five lobes, beset with long ciliary setae, or bristle- 
like filaments. Jaws seated far down in the abdominal cavity, 
not inclosed in a muscular bulb (mcistax). Foot long, wrinkled 
transversely, neither telescopic nor retractile. 
GENUS STEPHANOCEROS (Ehrenberg). 
Frontal lobes long, slender, erect, convergent ; ciliary setae 
set around them in whorls. Jaws each of three teeth con- 
nected by a web. 
There is but one well-established species, viz., S. Eichhornii 
(Ehrenberg). (See pi. iii.) This exquisitely elegant creature 
reaches the length of one-fifteenth of an inch, and is therefore 
distinctly visible to the unassisted eye. Ehrenberg- can have 
seen only small specimens, as he gives one-third of a line as 
its ultimatum — one-thirty-sixth of an inch, and Leyclig names 
half a line, or one-twenty-fourth of an inch ; but I have seen 
several individuals of the dimensions I have named. The five 
lobes, which take the form of the petals of a flower in Floscu- 
Iccria, are here produced into long slender incurved arms, and 
the long setae are arranged in verticils or whorls. They have 
not the length of those in Floscularia , but are still much longer 
