ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 91 



except that here the flow of protoplasm appeared to be 

 solely from the smaller to the larger animal. Before the 

 animal had become entirely spherical, the denser inner 

 portions of the smaller heliazoan had united with that of 

 the larger and appeared as a swelling upon it, while the 

 peripheral zones of both animals had united. This ap- 

 peared to be such a good example of the mode of union of 

 the protoplasm of tw^o heliazoa that I figure it (Fig. 15). 



I have observed a number of large helrazoa capture the 

 youngest individuals, and in all cases as soon as the young 

 animal touched the ray of the larger it appeared, so to 

 speak, to form a part of it, and would sometimes assume 

 an oval form and remain on the ray, looking exactly like 

 the little knobs of protoplasm which are frequently seen 

 there, except that it would be larger; and then again I 

 have seen them flow down the center of the ray, while the 

 ray itself suffered no appreciable change. In one instance, 

 however, which came under my observation, a moderate 

 sized heliazoan (Fig. 17) captured by the tip of its ray one 

 of the youngest individuals (Fig. 16), and while watching 

 to see what would happen to this young one, the ray of a 

 large heliazoan (Fig. 18) came in contact with the larger 

 of the former animals. Out of curiosity merely I watched 

 to see the result of this extraordinary union, and found 

 that the largest heliazoan drew its captured brother to itself 

 and united with it before the smallest individual had 

 touched the body of the one to which it w^as attached; the 

 smallest heliazoan then appeared to be fastened to a ray of 

 the largest animal, which, however, soon drew^ it to itself 

 and the two united. 



Quite a different process from the one we have been dis- 

 cussing occurs when the heliazoan encounters food con- 

 sisting of other animals or plants. I have no doubt but 

 that the youngest heliazoan, as well as those of all stages, 

 are able to and generally do develope and reach maturity by 



