Takeda . — Dysmorphococcus v aria bills, gen. el sp. nov. 153 
can be positively stated that they are granules, and not scrobiculations. 
It may also be mentioned here that the shell usually causes the interference 
of light on its margin, in the same way as in many smooth species of 
T rachelo monas . 
In the front view the shell appears as a rule more or less round or 
broadly ovate (f in Figs. 1, 3-13). In rarer cases it is more or less quad- 
rangular (f in Figs. 13, 14), and very seldom it is irregularly rhomboidal 
(Fig. 15, f). In the side view it is more or less pentagonal in form, 
narrowing towards the base. The end views (a and / in Figs. 4-8, 10, 12-15) 
are irregularly oval, and show two cilial apertures. The part of the shell 
between the two apertures projects very slightly, forming a very small 
beak-like protuberance. 
In many cases, especially in the specimens with distinct granules, 
a faint yet conspicuous line (dotted) on the long axis of the shell in both 
side and end views is noticeable (cf. a and s in Figs. 10, 12). This dotted 
line extends round the base of the shell, but gradually disappears when the 
upper region of the shell is reached. The only explanation I can offer at 
present is that this line is due to a coalescence of some of the granules on 
the surface of the shell. It is probably brought about by the fact that as 
the shell gradually gets narrow towards its base, the granules, which are, 
as already described, very regularly distributed, find in the lower region of 
the shell less room for their arrangement, consequently some of them may 
be expected to become confluent. This is assumed to have occurred along 
the median line, resulting in the production of the dotted line above 
referred to. 
This probably accounts for the fact that the dotted line is always 
circumbasal, but never encircles the whole shell. 
As to the question whether this dotted line indicates that the shell 
consists of two more or less equal halves and that the line may be regarded 
as a suture, I am not prepared to give an answer. Only once a piece of 
shell was found, which had been apparently broken along this line, but this 
isolated occurrence may perhaps have been accidental. 
The cilial apertures above referred to are very minute, being just large 
enough for the necessary play of the flagella, and have no thickening on the 
margin. It seems that they are more or less funnel-shaped, with the narrow 
end directed towards the apical beak of the protoplast, to which the flagella 
are attached. On this account, it usually happens that the apertures are 
viewed more or less obliquely, and they then appear as semicircles. 
The aperture* lie in a plane which is not parallel to the long axis of 
the anterior end view of the shell, but cuts the median line at an angle 
of about 45 0 (cf. a in Figs. 7, 8 , 10, 12, 14, and p in Fig. 13), so that each 
half of the shell appears to have one of the apertures belonging to it. For 
this reason, only one of the apertures is distinctly visible in either the front 
