290 ART. 7. T. TJIMA : IIEXACTINELLTDA, IV. 



(lovclopnioiit. Ceitciiii other thesocyte^ of tlie larger size sliow 

 irregulurly and ratiier coarsely granular contents, the granulation 

 often heilig considerably i-arified or even entirely ohliterated in 

 the peripheral parts. At times the cell-outline is irregular, ap- 

 parently as the result of shrinkage. Such thesocytes may be 

 regarded as those in which the contents are undergoing, or have 

 undergone, disintegration preparatory to Ijecoming consumed. 



In the present species I have observed a, number of oxy- 

 hexasters which apparently were not yet fully developed, or had 

 l)ut recently attained full size ; at all events they seemed to preserve 

 undisturbed their original relation with the surrounding soft tissues. 

 Reference has already l)een made in Contribution I., p. 109, to 

 the developing oxyhexaster and the scleroblasts. In this connection 

 I can add nothing of much importance to what I then said ; but 

 attention may be called to the three oxyhexasters included in fig. 

 19. The smallest depicted is about the smallest and youngest I 

 have met with ; the fact that the terminals appear to be stained 

 throughout their length indicates the presence of a protoplasmic 

 envelope. The two others may be considered to be of nearly or 

 quite mature development. In all the three oxyhexasters the 

 central parts are enveloped in a nucleated j^rotoplasmic mass 

 running out in the periphery into filamentous trabecuhc. The 

 mass itself may indistinctly show a cobweb-like structure and I 

 am inclined to regard it as for the most part nothing else than the 

 trabecular sul)stance. Accordingly, some of the nuclei contained 

 in the mass are probably simply trabecular nuclei, and the rest, 

 scleroblast-nuclei wliich should l)e present. It is difficult to dis- 

 criminate between the two sorts of nuclei ; however, I believe that 

 at least those Iving immediately around the central node of the 



