1869.] 



CANADIAN ZOOLOGY. 



413 



They will also serve to show the profuse manner in which the 

 work is illustrated with wood-cuts : — 



RHIZOPODS. 



We may take, as a type of this group, the A7noeha, a 

 microscopic creature frequently found in ponds containing 

 vegetable matter. It occurs in Canada, and may readily be 

 procured by the microscopist. Different species have been 

 described, but they are very similar to each other. When 

 placed under the microscope, a living specimen appears as a 

 flattened mass of transparent jelly ; the front part moving 

 forward with a sort of flowing motion, and jutting forth into 

 pseudopodial prolongations ; the hinder part appearing to be 

 drawn after it, and presenting fewer irregularities. In its 

 interior are seen minute granules which flow freely within its 

 substance, and one or more vesicles which alternately expand and 

 become filled with a clear fluid, and contract and disappear. 

 Often also there are certain spaces or vacuoles, in which may be 

 seen minute one-celled plants or other particles of food which the 

 creature has devoured, and which are in process of digestion. 

 The outer portion of the substance of the Amoeba appears to be 

 more transparent and dense than the central portion. So soft is 

 the tissue that the creature seems to flow forward like a drop of 

 some semi-fluid substance moving down an inclined surface ; but 

 as the Amoeba can move forward on a horizontal plane or up an 

 incline, it is obvious that its movement proceeds from a force 



Pig 24. 



Fig. 25. 



Amoeba, (Montreal,) 

 Magnified. 



AcTiNOPHKYS, (Montreal,) 

 Magnified. 



