46 T. C. WHITE ON PR0T0C0CCU8 PLUVIALIS. 



circular resting cell, the primordial cell which as the season advances 

 will produce its macrogonidia for the continuance of the species, and 

 with these Algas you Avill doubtless see Amcebce and developing 

 Philodince. If you seek for an Amceba, you will see a red cell — the 

 red cell that you have been so familiar with in the study of Proto- 

 coccus, occupying its centre — and you will also find Amoehce coloured 

 with green and red ; and the question naturally arises, " Do these 

 Protococci undergo that alternation of generation so familiar to the 

 student of the lower forms of life ? " " Do these Amoehce represent 

 so many portions of Bioplasm the result of changes in the Proto- 

 cocci, or have they a separate nature, and have they swallowed the 

 red centre of the Protococcus?'' My impression, derivable from 

 an examination of many Amnehce, is that they are the results of 

 changes from the Protococcal state, that they are vegetable, but of 

 course this phase of the subject remains for future investigation. 

 It appears to me that the structureless envelope becomes the homo- 

 geneous part of the Amceba, while the granular centre becomes the 

 granular Amceba, This conclusion is derivable from, and is the 

 result of, the collation of many observations made since last spring, 

 and ought not to be deemed beyond the bounds of probability, inas- 

 much as some of the former writers on these subjects, and especially 

 Mr. Carter, in the '* Annals of Natural History," Vol. xvii., for 

 1856, mentions the rhizopodous development of the contents of 

 Enghna into granuliferous Amueba. 



Since jotting down these few remarks, I have to-day seen an 

 Amceba with a well-defined homogenous circular zone, having within 

 it a pale green granular area, with the red oil spot, but to one side 

 rather than centrally situated, evidently a Proiococcus undergoing 

 change to an Amceba. Now the well-defined circle has broken up 

 into the usual Amoeboid projections, and it has passed beneath some 

 decayed vegetation and become invisible. 



