GENUS HYALOSPHENIA— HTALOSPHENIA TESTCTA. 139 



variety in the relation of the greater breadth to the length. Most frequently 

 the specimens observed were quite or nearly equal in length and breadth. 

 Specimens of usual size ranged from ith to ^th of an inch in length and 

 breadth, with rather less than half the thickness. The mouth is about 

 ji- th of an inch in breadth and ^th of an inch in the short diameter. 



The sarcode is colorless and finely granular, and usually contains a 

 multitude of large colorless globules, which are scarcely distinguishable 

 as vacuoles, food-balls, or contractile vesicles. The latter were only to be 

 recognized by looking for them in the usual position, along the border at 

 the fundus of the sarcode mass. A nucleus is present, but is obscured by 

 the surrounding granules and globules. . 



Viewed laterally, or from the extremities, the sarcode mass was 

 observed to touch the broader sides of the shell; but more or less vacancy 

 was left between it and the narrower sides. The lateral borders and fun- 

 dus of the mass are attached in the ordinary manner to the inner surface of 

 the shell by threads of the ectosarc. 



The pseudopods are commonly two or three in number, thick, digitate 

 and simple, but sometimes are more numerous and branching. 



Some individuals of this species appeared to be particularly irritable, 

 and tapping the glass upon which they were placed would not only cause 

 them to retract their preudopods, but also to separate from the mouth of the 

 shell and retreat into its fundus. In the contraction of the sarcode mass 

 it would assume a spheroidal form, but not withdraw the threads of attach- 

 ment to the sides and fundus of the shell. After a few moments of rest, 

 the sarcode would again descend and establish an attachment to the mouth 

 of the shell, and once more protrude its pseudopods. In one individual, 

 the sarcode mass actually protruded its pseudopods before the body was 

 extended to the mouth of the shell, as represented in fig. 12. 



Hyalosphenia tincta I found abundantly in moist sphagnum, of the large 

 sphagnous swamps, at Tobyhanna, on the Pokono Mountain, Monroe County, 

 Pennsylvania, in July, 1876. Later I found it, though rarely, in sphagnum, 

 near Kirkwood station, on the Camden and Atlantic railroad, New Jersey. 



I was at first disposed to view Hyalosphenia tincta as being the same as 

 H. cuneata. They have nearly the same size and form ; but the difference in 

 color of the shell and the difference in the character of the locality they 

 inhabit have led me to regard them as distinct. 



