70 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



absence of the conspicuous series of marginal vacuoles and by the 

 much more long and slender pseudopodia than depicted by Stein. 

 So far as can be judged, too, from Carter's figures (' Ann. Nat. 

 Hist.,' XV, pi. xii, fig, 1), his form does not seem to be identical 

 with that of Stein, nor with the present. 



Having proceeded so far with the description and exhibition of 

 this form, fearing that a certain amount of coincidence of its 

 characters with those of the form Mr. Archer had brought forward 

 before the Club in April last (see minutes of that date) might 

 lead some to suppose they were identical, he again presented 

 some good examples of the latter. This latter is much more 

 frequently met with in our moor pools (near Bray, &c.), than is 

 the form which was now particularly drawn attention to. A very 

 slight inspection showed it was indeed quite a distinct-looking 

 thing, both in colour and in structure of body and character of 

 pseudopodia. 



But if the Actinophrys now for the first time exhibited to the 

 Club appeared a 2)riori to be a difierent thing from Actinophrys 

 oculata in the points alluded to, it seemed (in a measure) to agree 

 with it in that circumstance which had been alluded to as the 

 second or external speciality — and that was, their occurring occa- 

 sionally consociated into elegantly and definitely arranged groups ; 

 this union being caused, however, not by a complete confluence 

 of the bodies, but merely by the mutual fusion of a number of the 

 pseudopodia, along which certain granules could be occasionally 

 seen to flow from one animal to another. These composite groups 

 did not contain many individuals, six being the greatest number 

 observed ; and these were mostly arranged in two alternating 

 triangles, or four arranged in two alternate pairs, but three or two 

 individuals only were sometimes joined. This combination by 

 means of the fusion of the pseudopodia did not, however, extend 

 to the bodies, like that of A. oculata. 



A suggestion then presents itself, looking on these groups in a 

 perhaps superficial way — a suggestion, indeed, which future 

 examination of this animal, when it may be again encountered by 

 observers, may refute. May, indeed, the large central body with 

 its sharply-defined outline, almost looking like a definite wall or 

 envelope, be considered at all homologous with the "central 

 capsule" of such marine Eadiolarian forms as Collozoum? Nor 

 would the absence of spicules militate against the correctness of 

 this idea, for Collozoum is without them, and the central capsules 

 of certain of the Badiolaria are described as very delicate and thin. 

 The constituent animalcules of a group seem to cohere much in 

 the same kind of way as do those of the compound marine forms ; 

 in the form now exhibited this union does not seem to represent 

 any " conjugation," but rather a combination of individuals 

 carrying on a community of life, but at the same time, as the free 

 individuals upon the slide proved, quite capable of becoming 

 disengaged and living solitary. Compare it, too, with Mr. 

 Archer's animal, RapTiicUophrys viridis (referred to in Club 



