THE FLOSCULES. 
161 
appellation; — Pallas having given to the species the name of 
hyacinthinus, under which name ( Vorticella hyaeinthina ) it takes 
its place in Gmelin’s edition of Linnaeus’s Sy sterna Nciturce ; 
and Oken making in 1815 a genus of it by its now accepted 
title of Floscularia, from flosculus, a little flower. The name 
of ornata was given in 1830 by Ebrenberg, who apologizes for 
not using Pallas’s appellation, on the ground that the vagueness 
of the early microscopic observations make it somewhat 
uncertain whether their species was truly identical with this. 
Still, from the commonness of our little beauty, not much doubt 
can be entertained that it was this species which they saw. 
The dimensions of the Beautiful Floscule, as measured by 
myself from an average specimen, are as follows : — The height 
of the case gVth of an inch ; height of foot -rsobh ; of foot and 
body to tip of tallest petal, -g^th ; of entire animal from base 
of tube to tip of longest bristles, so far as they can be traced, 
about sVth. Individuals, however, much exceed these dimen- 
sions : I have measured one which attained the height of y„th 
of an inch to the petal-tips, which may have given -Atb as the 
total altitude: the case of this specimen measured voth of an inch. 
The foot is a slender column, not perfectly straight, nor of 
uniform thickness ; it often displays irregular bendings, some- 
times amounting to abrupt knee-like angles, and has in general 
one or more swellings or bulgings, equally irregular. These 
are accidental, for they do not always occur at the same point : 
there is, however, one which is more constant, though not 
uniformly so, — a considerable angular swelling just below the 
merging of the foot into the body. 
The body is sub-oval, sometimes very regularly, but at 
other times (plate ix., fig. 1), a little enlarging at the upper end. 
Above this, there is a constriction or neck, but not so well 
defined a collar as in Stephanoceros. Prom this neck the 
beautiful flower-like disk opens, an expanse of the most 
exquisitely delicate and brilliantly transparent membrane, 
which, as I have said, forms five blunt points,* equidistant, and 
* I have never been able to obtain a specimen with more than five points. 
Ehrenberg, however, assigns six to it, in his specific diagnosis of the species, 
and in his description. He figures one, however, with five. Dujardin and 
Peltier in France, and Leydig in Wiirtzburg, allow of no more than five. On 
the other hand, Dr. Dobie quotes Mr. Hallett, who “ finds F. ornata six- 
lobed.” Mr. Slack seems to cut the knot by attributing to the animal a 
power of changing the number at pleasure. His words are remarkable : — • 
“ Although it is easy enough to count them in some positions, the observer 
may have to exercise a good deal of patience before he is certain whether they 
are five or six. For a long evening only five could be discerned in the specimen 
now described, but on the next night six were apparent ivithout difficulty or doubt ” 
(“Marvels of Pond Life,” p. 81). This is sufficiently precise, and Mr. Slack 
is an excellent and careful observer ; yet surely the power of altering the 
outline of the front, implied, cannot be admitted without reluctance by one 
who is acquainted with the animal. 
