GENUS BIOMYXA— BIOMYXA VAGANS. 281 



Commonly, the specimens under observation remained nearly stationary 

 in position, but occasionally the body appeared to.be dragged along with 

 extreme slowness through aid of the anterior pseudopodal extensions. 



BIOMYXA. 



Greek, bios, life; muxa, mucus. 



Initial form spherical, but incessantly changing, consisting of a glairy, 

 colorless, finely granular protoplasm, which has the power of expanding 

 and extending itself in any direction, and of projecting pseudopodal fila- 

 ments, which freely branch and anastomose; a circulation of minute granules 

 in currents along the body and pseudopods ; contractile vesicles numerous 

 and minute, and occurring both in the body and pseudopods. A nucleus 



present or absent. 



BIOMYXA VAGANS. 



Plates XLVII, figs. 5-12 ; XLVIII. 

 Biomyxa vagans. Leidy : Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phila. 1875, 124. 



Body at rest, spheroidal, oval, or botuliform ; in motion, of ever chang- 

 ing form, — centrally spheroidal, or elliptical, discoid, cylindroid, fusiform, 

 triangular, quadrate, band-like, or dividing into several portions, — with pseu- 

 dopodal prolongations, usually as filaments, mostly bipolar, of very variable 

 form and length, branching and anastomosing so as to produce more or less 

 intricate nets, often expanding into perforated patches. Composed of pale 

 granular protoplasm with oil molecules, and numerous minute contractile 

 vesicles appearing at the surface of the body and along the pseudopodal 

 extensions. Nucleus when present large, distinct, clear or faintly granular. 

 Vacuoles few or none. 



Size. — Exceedingly variable. 



Locality. — Sphagnous swamps, in bog-water. New Jersey and Penn- 

 sylvania, 



In the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 

 phia for April, 1875, I published a brief notice of a curious organism, 

 under the name of Biomyxa vagans. I first discovered it in water with 

 aquatic plants and sphagnum, from the border of Absecom pond, New 

 Jersey, collected in the autumn and preserved in the house during the 

 winter. The same thing I again found in sphagnum, obtained the follow- 



