Bot. [mod.L., f. L. volvĕre to roll.] A genus of fresh-water organisms having a spherical form and provided with cilia which enable them to roll over in the water; an individual of this genus.
Volvox is the name of a vine-fretter in Holland, Pliny (1601), I. 547 is derived from old editions of the Nat. Hist., XVII. xxviii., which have voluocem in place of voluere(m).
1798. Tilloch’s Philos. Mag., I. 212. Girod Chantram … even distinguished in one species of conferva a real volvox, which had some similarity to the rotator of Gmelin.
1864. H. J. Slack, in Intell. Observer, V. 183. In one of my specimens I found a small volvox apparently uninjured.
1884. Edin. Rev., Oct., 373. It would now seem that the celestial spaces have also their volvoxes and diatoms.
