Lucanus sang. Nine years later Dugès wrote again on worms in the same periodical, but put his worm by the side of Savigny's, and spoke of them as distinct species. He now calls them Lumbricus, and says of the first (L. tetraedrus) that the clitellum is composed of seven segments ending with the 28th, and the worm is small and fragile, frequenting the neighbourhood of stagnant waters, and crawling out at night in their vicinity. Of his own species (L. amphisbæna) he says that there are six segments to the clitellum, which again ends on the 28th, and the habitat is the same. It differs, however, from the other not only in the number of segments which go to form the girdle or clitellum, but also in its smaller size, the prismatic and crenelated form of the tail, and the semi-lunar shape of the lip or prostomium, which in one case (L. tetraedrus) is only slightly angled on the side of the following segment, whereas the lip of the other species cuts the segment completely. The colour of the one (L. tetraedrus) is a dull brown, whereas it is violet in the other, and has a tendency to iridescence. These distinctions appear to have been overlooked to a large extent by later writers. b Fig. 58.-Seta (with five muscular attachments, a) and spinets. In 1843 Hoffmeister gave the worm a new name (L. agilis), calling it the agile worm, which is very accurate, but not so characteristic as the names already given by Savigny and Dugès, as there are others quite as active. Though it still continued to attract attention, no alteration was made in the terminology till 1870, when Eisen first recognised it as a distinct genus, and called it Allurus, not merely on account of its shape, but because the male pore, or vulva as it was formerly called, is found on the thirteenth instead of on the fifteenth segment as in Lumbricus. Eisen has also recognised the existence of certain wellmarked differences among the various specimens which he has examined, and he has named two or three varieties. I believe that in some instances specific rank will be ultimately accorded to some of the varieties, a point to be discussed in our next section. Since Eisen's day Allurus has been still further studied by Rosa, Beddard, and others, and I have been able from my own researches to confirm and amplify their accounts of this curious worm. The following table will present the historical data in a compact form, and enable the student readily to turn to the earlier monographs and works where the subject is discussed. 1828. Enterion tetraedrum, Savigny (Cuvier, "Histoire des Progrès des Sciences naturelles." Ser. ii., vol. iv., p. 17, or vol. ii. No. 20, p. III). 1828. Enterion Amphisbaena, Dugès ("Annales des Sciences naturelles." Ser. i., vol. xv., p. 293, Plate 9, fig. 19, 20, 24). 1837. Lumbricus tetraedrus, and Lumbricus amphisbaena, Dugès ("Ann. des Sc. nat.," Ser. ii., vol. viii., pp. 17, 23). 1843. Lumbricus agilis, Hoffmeister (Wiegmann, "Archiv für Naturgeschichte," p. 191, tab. ix. fig. 6; "Familie der Regenwürmer," 1845, p. 36). 1870. Allurus tetraedrus, Eisen (“Öfv. af Kongl. Vetensk. Akad. Förh.," p. 966; ibid. 1873, No. 8, p. 54). II. DESCRIPTION OF ALlurus. It will be well, before I enter upon a detailed description of the square-tailed worm, to explain one or two of the technical terms in common use in this branch of science. The extreme anterior or fore-part of the worm's body is called the prostomium, because it is before and above the mouth (stoma). It is sometimes spoken of, less technically, as the lip. On either side of the body, usually about midway between the lip and the swollen portion, one finds either a protuberance or a depression. Here the male pore is situated, sometimes on papillæ, at other times sunk below the surface of the epidermis, and detected with difficulty. Its position and appearance, like the shape of the prostomium, is of great help in the identification of species. The swollen portion in an adult worm is called the clitellum, it is also popularly known as the girdle, while cingulum is the term in favour with some authors. Along the back there exist a number of minute apertures connected with the cœlom which are known as the dorsal pores, while there exist under or near the clitellum in certain species other pores called 'tubercula pubertatis.' Internally we find numerous glands and organs whose functions can only be understood by those who have read some account of the anatomy and physiology of the worm. If we take the external characters first, we shall find that Allurus ranges from one to two inches in length, but is capable of stretching to nearly three inches when hastening away from its pursuer. It varies greatly in colour, as we have already seen, from a beautiful rich yellow to dull brown, and from a light brown to violet with iridescence. It has a square-tail, containing usually about forty segments, making the total number of segments for the whole body from seventy to eighty. I took an example the other day with sixty segments behind the clitellum. The clitellum often varies in colour from the rest of the body, which it sometimes appears to encircle entirely. It commences on the 22nd segment usually, and extends to the 27th, but the glandular cells of the clitellum extend to other segments as well. The male pore is on the 13th segment, and may be easily recognised, as it runs parallel with the segmentdivisions, and is placed on either side of the body, somewhat on the under-surface, or ventrally. Beddard thinks the spermathecæ are on segment 8, which bears also rod-shaped setæ.* .* The dorsal pores commence between the 3rd and 4th or the 4th and 5th segments. The ordinary setæ are similar to those of our other native worms, but I have found minute processes on the extremity which projects outwards, similar to those described on some foreign species. The internal extremity is attached to its sac by fine muscular threads. They have a tendency to split up into 8 rows rather than appear in 4 pairs, and are about 2 centimetres long, or nearly half the width of the body. The tubercula pubertatis are said to occur on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th segments. I have so far failed to see them. For external characters, the following works may be consulted in addition to those already given. Grube, "Familien der Anneliden," 1851, p. 145; Oerley, "A Magyarországi Oligochæták Faunája,” 1880, p. 598–601; Rosa, “I Lumbricidi del Piemonte," Torino, 1884, p. 51; Ude, "Zeitschrift für Wissen. Zool.," 1885, p. 139; Johnston, "Catalogue of British Worms," p. 61. Owing to the small size attained by Allurus, it is somewhat difficult to dissect the worm in the ordinary way, so as to obtain perfectly reliable results, and it therefore becomes necessary to prepare sections by the microtome. My results differ slightly in some respects from those of Beddard.* He gives the gizzard one segment only (viz. the 17th), whereas in the worms I have examined the crop occupied 15 and 16, the gizzard 17 and 18. The nephridia seem to commence in segment 7. I have found 5 pairs of seminal reservoirs in segments 8-12 inclusive, being one pair more than Beddard reports. I find 2 pairs of spermathecæ, one in segment 8, and one in segment 9, and the calciferous glands, of which I find one pair, are in segment 10, just in front of the middle pair of seminal reservoirs. Here again I differ from Beddard; and the most reasonable explanation of this fact, I think, lies in the suggestion that we, have been working on distinct species which have not yet been differentiated. In addition to what have been usually regarded as typical specimens, I have met with a totally distinct variety, which I formerly called flavus, but which I find has been named luteus by Eisen. It is of a beautiful, rich yellow colour, with orange clitellum, *My further researches, since this paper was written, clearly point to the existence of at least two, if not more, distinct species. III. DISTRIBUTION OF ALLUrus. Eisen has described it from specimens found in Sweden and Beddard from a single worm sent from Teneriffe. Rosa has recorded it from North Italy; Oerley from Hungary, where also the varieties already. named exist. Hoffmeister found it in North Germany, Dugès in France (probably about Montpellier), in which country more recent observers have also collected it, but Kulagin does not mention it in his recent enumeration of Russian species of earthworms. Oerley classes it as "Palaearktic." It was first mentioned as British by Johnston in 1865, a single specimen being at that time in the British Museum. It was found in Devon, and I have found it in Yorkshire and Cumberland, together with the yellow variety. See Johnston's "Catalogue of British Worms," p. 61; Beddard, op cit. p. 365; and Oerley, "A Magyar. Oligochaeták Faunája," 1880, p. 599 et seq. LORD TENNYSON'S FLOWERS. ENNYSON'S [OW that the thrushes have begun their morning. Now and evening song, and the girls are offering the bunches of wild snowdrops for sale in the streets, our hearts begin to long for the spring flowers (never more prized than after this long and trying winter), and we begin to anticipate our coming pleasures by turning to the favourite passages that tell of our darlings. And who will bring the flowers of spring. and summer before us as well as Lord Tennyson? Who else has distinguished, with suitable epithet, one wayside flower from another, and given to his exquisite landscapes the true finishing flower-touch ? Other poets have sung in honour of flowers: Alfred Austin has celebrated the primrose in charming verse; Wordsworth has immortalised the lesser celandine; Burns has glorified the "bonnie gem ". the daisy-and thus re-echoed the praises of old. Chaucer; but none has been at once so catholic in taste, so accurate in localisation, so exquisite in selection of epithet as the Laureate. This love of flowers is from the beginning; it is as evident in the earliest poems as in the latest; it is charming everywhere. In the early poems-published sixty years ago-we have the flowers in the old-fashioned Lincolnshire garden drooping under the action of the autumn frosts. Heavily hangs the broad sunflower, Over its grave i' the earth so chilly; Perhaps the very garden in which, after his departure, Unwatched the garden bough shall sway, Unloved that beech will gather brown, Unloved the sunflower, shining fair, Ray round with flame her disk of seed, And around, or below, where the great Fenland swept away to the great sea: Far through the marish, green and still, and with The silvery marish flowers that throng And with these we must quote, as characteristic of the scenery among which his earlier years were passed, "two of the most beautiful and melancholy lines in our language," as Henry Kingsley truly calls them: When from the dry, dark wold the summer airs blow cool, On the oat-grass, and the sword-grass, and the bulrush in the pool. The meadow- and marsh-flowers are chiefly spoken of in the "May Queen": And by the meadow trenches blow the faint sweet cuckooflowers, And the wild marsh marigold shines like fire in swamps and hollows grey. What a gleam of first May time those two lines bring with them! One can see the water-meadows of our Dorsetshire Stour, or of the Salisbury Avon, winding to and fro from Ringwood to Christchurch, where the wide moist meadows are on fire with marsh marigold. In that lovely "Dirge," how he delights to bring together over the quiet grave, "the bramble-roses, faint and pale," "the gold-eyed king-cups fine," "the frail blue bells," "the rare broidry of the purple clover," till, as Shelley said, "making one in love with death to think one should be buried in so sweet a place." Almost always the wild flowers are spoken of. In the spring "by ashen roots the violets blow," a line which once guided us to a lovely clump of white violets after a fruitless search elsewhere. Following Shakspere, he thinks how, when Arthur Hallam Lies at rest in quiet Clevedon, “Of his ashes may be made the violet of his native land." So Shakspere, of Ophelia, "From her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring." But both our poets had been anticipated— Non e manibus illis, Non e tumulo, fortunataque favilla Nascuntur violae ? The orchis, "the foxglove spire with its dappled bells," ," "the little speedwell's darling blue," "deep tulips dashed with fiery dew," "laburnums, dropping wells of fire," each in turn recalling some pleasant spot, it may be in damp spring copse, or meadow, or by sunny bank, or in sloping garden. The glorious reaches of blue when the hyacinths carpet the ground are specially noted, for we read how Lancelot and Guinevere Rode under groves that looked a paradise That seemed the heavens upbreaking thro' the earth. That is a bit of forest. We saw the very place last spring, quite close to Queen's Bower, near Brockenhurst, where, beneath stately beeches, the ground was covered with blue-bells, as we call them. The mention of the delicate wind-flowers softens the rugged speech of the wild "Northern Farmer " as he tells how the keeper was shot dead, and lay on his face "down i' the woild enemies," a wonderfully pathetic touch, as it shows you the dead man with the delicate petals of the flowers whispering round the motionless head. Do you want a broad summer landscape, with the scent of summer and the promise of autumn? Here it is : When summer's hourly mellowing change Can you not see the "waves of shadow pass over the wheat," and smell the fragrance of the wind that has travelled over the many roses? Surely some one has painted that "grey old grange" amid its far waving corn! The simple happy cottage-flowers, "traveller's joy," "honeysuckle," rosy sea of gillyflowers, "close-set robe of jasmine," "lily-avenue," and so on, are noted, one by one, in a pretty passage in "Aylmer's Field," describing the houses of Sir Aylmer's tenantry. But the most splendid use of the common flowers is in the finest of all his pieces on public events, the "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington." Not once, or twice, in our rough island story, For the right, and learns to deaden The thistle referred to is the lovely purple-headed one that grows on the down-sides, with a more silvery leaf and a far more "glossy purple" than the common roadside sort. The use of this as an emblem of the unexpected reward of duty honestly performed, is one of the most telling selections in English poetry. The way in which the commonest flower depends for its existence on laws the most profound and farreaching is brought before us by the last quotation we must make. Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies: Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, Little flower; but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is. Eversley, Poole. AS W. K. GILL. ROSSENDALE RHIZOPODS. No. 2. S promised in my last communication, which was introductory to the series, I now have to describe several forms of the naked lobose Protoplasts which have come under my own observation. First and foremost of these is the well-known and often described Amaba proteus. This animal is familiar enough to the merest microscopical tyro, as it is found in the sediment of almost every pond and ditch. It presents itself under the 'magic tube,' as a shapeless mass of jelly; round the outer edge is a clear portion, the ectosarc, free from granules; while the interior endosarc is apparently more fluid, and contains a variable quantity of granules and food particles in different stages of digestion. If carefully watched, it will be seen to push out, at one or more points, rounded lobes of the clear ectosarc, as if, to use a simile of Professor Leidy, it had exuded or sweated numerous drops of liquid. These "lobes quickly elongate and assume the forms of digitate pseudopods," and as they lengthen the more fluid endosarc flows in. While these new processes are being pushed out, others are being retracted, and these Protean-like changes of form go on in such a way as to result in a slow, onward movement of the animal. The smaller forms have generally little colour, and these are of most frequent occurrence in this district. Others, however, found in waters having much organic matter in a state of decay, or where Algous food is plentiful, have considerable colour. This is found to be due to a variety of materials, which if carefully examined, resolve themselves into the following elements. Fine and coarse granules; rounded bodies of the nature of starch granules; yellow and brown oil-like drops; coloured waterdrops; sand-grains; minute crystals; yellow, brown or green food-balls, often surrounded by a clear space filled with liquid; and more recently ingested food, such as Desmids, Diatoms, Zoospores, fragments of Oscillatoria and other Algae. In addition there are generally a discoid somewhat granular Nucleus, and near it, the contracting vesicle, or pulsating organ, often of a delicate pink hue. Amoeba can take food at any part of its surface, and the discharge of effete matter is likewise ejected from any part, but according to several authorities, more frequently from that. which at the moment happens to be posterior. On coming in contact with suitable food material, Amoeba puts forth a portion of the clear ectosarc, and surrounds the object, which subsequently appears to sink into the endosarc, becoming enclosed in a vacuole, in which by a process of digestion it becomes indistinguishable from other food-balls, previously ingested. They vary greatly in size, from or larger to of an inch. There are many points in the economy of Amoeba which I must pass over, owing to limitations of space; sufficient has been written, however, to enable us to judge of the correctness of some remarks of Professor Carpenter, in his "Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera." He says, "A little particle, of apparently homogeneous jelly, changing itself into a greater variety of form than the fabled Proteus, laying hold of its food without members, swallowing it without a mouth, digesting it without a stomach, appropriating its nutritious materia! without muscles, feeling (if it has any power to do so) without nerves, propagating itself without genital apparatus, and not only this, but in many instances forming shelly coverings of a symmetry and complexity not surpassed by those of any testaceous animals." Fig. 59 shows a very common form here, from clear ponds ; it is small, with the pseudopodia somewhat radiately arranged, and shows the Cont. vesicle. Fig. 60 a larger form, also common, with Diatoms, &c., recently ingested, no Nucleus, or Cont. vesicle visible. Fig. 61, a form with rather conical pseudopods, sarcode stretched over a long Diatom. The Rhizopods of this genus, possessing no definate or constant figure, species mongers have taken full advantage of their opportunities, and have given specific names to a number of slightly different forms. There are, however, a few, which exhibit permanent differences, which in the present state of our knowledge, it may be as well to distinguish in this way. Amaba villosa, which is locally uncommon, differs 63, larger form with three anterior lobes, Nucleus, and two or three Cont. vesicles. Amaba radiosa is another small and inactive species, very rare here. Indeed, so rare is it, that I have never found it in any of the numerous places where I habitually collect. My first and only specimens were taken from a plate which had been under a Fern-case. There were literally thousands of them, among the floccose (sediment, along with other obscure Rhizopods (Vampyrella, &c.) and Rotifera vulgaris and Philodyna erythothalma. They from the preceding in several particulars; it has a distinct anterior and posterior region; the villous part, which is knob-like, is always posterior, and is covered with persistent, prickle-like pseudopodia; the anterior part is broadish; ectosarc, a well-defined zone, and its general form is irregularly clavate, occasionally with two or three broad, anterior lobes. There is a single, generally large Cont. vesicle posteriorly situated, and a little in front of this the Nucleus. Size from too of an inch. Found among mosses, Algae, and frequently in Sphagnum. Fig. 62, small form with Cont. vesicle. Fig. Fig. 70.-Pelomyxa villosa in motion. have from two or three to a dozen tapering pseudopods, and these may be short or two or three times the diameter of the body. This form has little colour, and I never found any with food-balls or coloured drops of any kind. There is generally a distinct Nucleus, and one or several Cont. vesicles. It is when freely floating that they exhibit their characteristic radiate form; when crawling this is somewhat lost, as the pseudopodia are either retracted, or a few only are put forth in the direction of motion. When calmly floating the pseudopodia may be seen shortening or lengthening, or slowly bending back |