NOTES ON SPONDYLOMORUM QUATERNARIUM 
EHRENB.i 
Malcolm E. Stickney 
All the members of the Volvox family command rather excep- 
tional interest with botanists and zoloogists alike. Not only does 
their systematic position on the border line between animals and 
plants, and the fact that within the group various steps in the evolu- 
tion of lower organisms including the evolution of sex may be 
traced, contribute to this interest, but their striking features of 
form and behavior and their sporadic occurrence has made them 
for the past two hundred years objects of much study. Spondy- 
lomorum, one of the simplest of the family, was first described by 
Ehrenberg^ in 1848. Stein^ later figured the adult colony with 
great clearness, and described certain phases of its life history and 
reproduction, presenting an account which stands practically with- 
out addition as representing our present knowledge of that form. 
Various observers have reported it as occurring in small ponds in 
certain parts of Germany, France, and upper Austria (DeTonP) 
in Europe, and in Connecticut (Conn)^ in this country. Oltmanns® 
1 in presenting Stein’s account of the vegetative habit and mode 
j of reproduction of this form (the latter being given as essentially 
I that of the vegetative reproduction of Gonium or Pandorina), 
deplores the insufl&ciency of our knowledge of this member of the 
Volvox group. It is with a view to making up this lack in cer- 
tain few particulars that this very incomplete account is presented, 
based as it is upon studies extending over but a short time, and 
I with a relatively small amount of material. It is expected that a 
I more complete account may be forthcoming later, when more 
‘ ^ Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory of Denison University, no. x. 
I ^ Ehrenberg, C, G. Monatsh. Berlin Akad. p. 236. 1848. 
^ Stein, Fr. Organismus der Infusionstiere, 3:1. 1854. 
' ^ Detoni, J. B. Sylloge Algarum, 1 : 534-559. 1889. 
I ® Conn, H. A. A Preliminary Report on the Protozoa of the Fresh Waters of 
1 Connecticut. 1904. 
I ® Oltmanns, F. Morphologie und Biologie der Algen, 1904. 
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