MICROSCOPIC ORGANISMS IN INTESTINAL CANAL, 267 
place varies greatly in different cases and in different portions of 
one and the same specimen. Complete fusion often occurs in 
the basal portions of pedicillate sporangia, while the process is 
only partial higher up. In such cases while we find the stem 
consisting of a seemingly homogeneous mass, the head is gene- 
rally more or less distinctly marked out into a series of irregular 
areas, which are in some cases so defined as to give the surface 
when viewed under a low microscopic power a somewhat granular 
or faintly nodulated aspect. 
The appearances presented by the sporangic masses, where the 
constituent Amcebe are yet distinctly recognisable, are very 
curious. The surface presents a strangely epithelioid appearance, 
due to the dense aggregation of irregular cells closely adapted to 
one another, so as to form a continuous layer, while on deeper focus 
we encounter sectional views of the interior, consisting of a dense 
mass of similar bodies (Pl. XVIII, fig. 3). We havea regular 
tissue formation due to aggregation and union of originally 
independent elements. 
The sporangia vary greatly in size as well as in the extent to 
which a distinction between a stem and head is present. In 
many cases no stem formation takes place, and the spherical 
sporangium is merely attached at one or other point of its cir- 
cumference, in others a pedicle of considerable length is present 
(Pl. XVIII, fig. 1). The heads may attain a diameter of 0°37 
of a millimeter, and the pedicles a length of 0°25. When the 
pedicle is of any length it is usually dilated basally into a disc 
or into several root-like expansions, which embrace the body to 
which it is adherent. The sporangia are almost invariably 
situated on prominent projecting points of the basis, such as 
minute fragments of vegetable tissue, &c. When developing, 
they first appear as minute hyaline prominences or rods project- 
ing on the surface of the basis. As their development advances 
they become dilated—the dilatation in the rod forms occurring 
terminally, and causing them to assume a capitate aspect—and 
at the same time an opalescence appears in the previously hyaline 
material. This increases in intensity and passes on to opacity, 
and the fresh mature sporangia are of a bright glistening white- 
ness, passing into various stages of yellow, buff, and amber, as 
drying sets in. 
On examining many sporangia, even when the constituent 
Ameebe are yet recognisable through more or less of their sub- 
stance, the presence of a distinct investing membrane may be 
made out, and in all mature sporangia such a structure is inva- 
riably present. Owing, however, to variations in its structure 
under different circumstances, it is much more readily recognisable 
in some cases than in others, and may, indeed, sometimes readily 
