ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
747 
as B. indistincta are viscous, and others, especially the Chalinin® and 
the Ectyonina3, are elastic. The thread-like liquid of Desmacidon and 
of Dendoryx is a true mucus, secreted by spherical cells, the glandular 
nature of which may be demonstrated with anilin dyes. Short notes 
are given on various Sponges of the three groups. 
Notes on Sponges.* — M. E. Topsent gives a list of the nine species 
found by M. Alluaud at the Seychelles ; among them are Spongelia 
spinifera, known from Lessina, Port Phillip, and Port Jackson, Acervo - 
chalina jinitima , which has a connective tissue identical with that of 
Beniera elegans and Chalina Montagui, and Ecionema rotundum , which is, 
perhaps, only a variety of E. acervus. 
He adds f Spongilla fragilis to the four species of French Spongillids 
already known, and has a note on some Sponges from the Gulf of 
Tadjoura $ (near Aden) ; among these there is a new genus which he 
calls Axosuberites ( A . Fauroti sp. n.), in which there is a distinct axis 
formed of tylostyles and spongin. 
Protozoa. 
Structural Differentiation of Protozoa.§ — Mr. J. E. S. Moore has 
succeeded in obtaining sections in series of Spirostomum ; staining with 
gentian- violet, Victoria blue, or orange showed a splendid reticulum or 
vacuolation of the whole protoplasmic body. The meshes were finer 
round the nuclei and largest between them and the periphery, where 
there was a compact protoplasmic layer just within the actual outer 
membrane. The sections appear to indicate the existence of denser 
tracts of substance running down the entire length of each ridge. The 
presence, near the mouth, of refractive striae probably means that the 
fibrillation represents the agent in transmission of something like a 
nervous impulse from the inner protoplasm to a specially mobile region. 
When Parameecium is treated in the same way as Spirostomum it 
shows no differentiation into a reticulum of chromatic fibres and achro- 
matic spaces ; the contents of the body are far more nearly uniformly 
made up of granular protoplasm. 
Coccidia of Birds. J| — M. A. Labbe has found a very small, tetra- 
sporous Coccidium in Charadrius cantianus , C. philippinus, Strepsilas 
interpres, Calidris arenaria , Pelidna torquata , Tringa alpina, and Actitis 
hypoleucos. One of the most interesting of its characters is the frequent 
presence of two light granules at the micropylar end. The author does 
not regard them as polar globules, and notices that they are sometimes 
absent, and that their presence appears to be dependent on the medium in 
which the Coccidia are developed. Seductive as it is to compare them 
with the polar globules of the eggs of Metazoa, their absence in many 
Coccidia, and the inconstancy of their appearance in those species in 
which they are developed are strong arguments against the comparison. 
Coccidia.1T — M. P. Thelohan gives an account of the complex and as 
yet little studied differentiations which appear in the protoplasm of the 
* Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xviii. (1893) pp. 172-5. f Tom. cit., p. 176. 
X Tom. cit.,pp. 177-80 (4 figs.). 
§ Journ. Linn. Soc. Lond., xxiv. (1893) pp. 364-8 (1 pi.). 
|| Comptes Reudus, cxvii. (1893) pp. 407-9. ^ Tom. cit., pp. 247-9 (3 figs.). 
1893 . 3 f 
