Hydrophore

Fig. 9. represents a hydrophore used for procuring specimens of water from moderate depths, drawn on a scale of one-tenth of the full size.

When the hydrophore is to be used, the cylinder is lowered to the required depth by the pole which is fixed to its side; or if the depth be greater than the range of the pole, it is loaded with weights, and let down by means of a rope so attached as to keep it in a vertical position.

The valves, however, in this instrument are not opened by means of a cord, but by the impact of the projecting part, d, of the lower spindle on the bottom, when the hydrophore is sunk to that depth.

It is, in our opinion, unfortunate that the term "hydrophore" has come into general use for this rudimentary form of hydrotheca.

Thus if Phylactothcca is to be regarded as a valid genus, it can only be, on the basis of Billard's definition, if the hydrophores are definitely not of the typical Halecium-form.

The very short hydrophore pedicel projects from a shelf-like process near the distal end of the internode, which is not enlarged where the hydrophore appears.

Internodes approximately uniform but becoming shorter distally, segments comparatively short, hydrophore distal, usually parallel with segment, not delimited by node.

The hydrophore (VI), on the other hand, which is quite well preserved, was probably the work of an artist in Magna Graecia, as Mrs. Tölle-Kastenbein has suggested.