OBSERVATIONS ON THE GREGAEINES OF HOLOTHURTANS. 297 



good condition. However that may be, it can be seen from 

 fig. 25, a and b (drawn from Professor Blitschli's preparation), 

 that the spore contains eight sporozoites, each with a nucleus 

 and flame-like tail embedded in a granular "nucleus de reliquat/' 

 Like those described above, they are typically arranged in two 

 rows of four each, with the tail pointing away from the spore 

 funnel, some of the sporozoites, however, being often displaced 

 in position. They diff'er slightly in details from the sporozoites 

 of G. irregularis, but are perhaps not quite so mature; the 

 nucleus is spherical, and the shape of the whole organism is 

 slightly diff'erent. 



The only author who has mentioned these sporozoites is 

 MiNGAzziNi (5), who finds that each spore contains three 

 falciform bodies and a granular nucleus de reliquat. I am at 

 a loss to know how this author has arrived at this result, which 

 I can neither confirm nor express my belief in. I am inclined 

 to think he has inferred the presence of three falciform bodies 

 not from his own observation, but from Schneider's fig. 7 

 (2, pi. xii). Schneider has drawn in the interior of the spore 

 three oval figures and a patch of granules, which he says 

 nothing about. It seems to me, however, that Schneider did 

 not mean to express hereby the presence of three falciform 

 bodies and a nucleus de reliquat, but rather the presence of a 

 granular undefined mass in the interior. In any case I think 

 we are justified in setting aside Mingazzini's statement, and 

 ascribing eight falciform bodies or sporozoites both to this 

 species and to G. irregularis. 



To sum up the above observations, we may give this species 

 the following characters : 



Gregarina holothurise, Anton Schneider. — Gregarines 

 of somewhat large size, and at first of irregular form, contained 

 in the lumen of the intestinal blood-lacunes (Mingazzini), but 

 later in life becoming regularly egg-shaped, and then enclosed 

 in stalked epithelial vesicles formed by evagination of the walls 

 of the blood-vessels. Body formed of opaque, coarsely granu- 

 lar protoplasm, limited by a distinct cuticle, with two large 

 spherical nuclei, each floating in a clear space free from 



