90 JOURNAL OF THE 



the two animals had united into an oblong-shaped mass. 

 The flowing of the protoplasm from one to the other was 

 a most interesting sight, and could be distinctly seen, 

 owing to the numerous granules which it contained. Both 

 animals played an equal part in the union; a current of 

 protoplasm could be seen streaming from the first into the 

 second, and near it another current from the second into 

 the first. There were as many currents as there were 

 threads of denser protoplasm uniting them. Like all the 

 observed cases the denser and more granular portions of 

 the protoplasm separating the vacuoles from one another 

 never mixed with anything but the corresponding proto- 

 plasm of the individual with which it united; hence there 

 was no destruction of vacuoles, but merely an addition 

 or union, and, moreover, the peripheral layer of vacuoles 

 always remained on the periphery, while the central mass 

 of vacuoles flowed to the center of the united mass. The 

 heliazoan now gradually changed from the oblong or ellip- 

 soid shape to that of a sphere (Fig. ii), and here I left it 

 to seek other fields. 



A nearly identical individual to the one just mentioned 

 was found and seen to capture by one of its rays another 

 but smaller heliazoan. As a result of a movement of 

 the water the smaller individual chanced to come in con- 

 tact with the tip of a ray of the larger animal and there to 

 unite with it, whereupon the larger heliazoan gradually 

 drew in its ray and the smaller creature with it. It was an 

 interesting sight to see this process. The ray seemed 

 rather to flow into the spherical mass or body of the animal, 

 since a stream of protoplasm was rapidly and constantly 

 flowing down its center into the animal, and the smaller 

 heliazoan was likewise flowing into the larger by this 

 means; but, nevertheless, the ray grew shorter and shorter 

 until finally the heliazoa came in contact (Fig. 13), and 

 then a union took place similar to the one described above, 



