SOME OUSKRVATIONS ON A NEW GRECIARENE. 267 



tion, altliougli the stained preparations do not in the least 

 degree support this suggestion. 



The epiraerite is a dome-shaped structure. It is provided 

 with short club-like processes, recalling tiiose of Echino- 

 mera, but often branched, arranged in a dense ring around 

 the line of junction with the protomerite, and also on the roof 

 of the dome (figs. 4 and 5). These latter processes are 

 markedly shorter than those of the ring, and decrease in size 

 as the apex of the epimerite is approached. The processes 

 are perforated at their somewhat clubbed ends by small 

 poi'es, clearly to be seen in the freshly mounted living 

 gregarine by the aid of a j\ in. oil-immersion lens. Judging 

 from analogy with such forms as Echinomera and Ptero- 

 cephalus (Nina), and also from the ajipeai'ance seen in 

 sections across the point of fixation to the liost, there is no 

 doubt that fine psendopodia are protruded through these 

 pores, which fix the gregarine to the intestinal mucous mem- 

 brane of the host. The fixing apparatus is by no means easy 

 to identify, as, owing to the unavoidable roughness of the 

 dissection, the gregarines are rudely torn from their moorings, 

 and almost invariably carry away with them a crown-like 

 fringe — derived from the host-cells — which surrounds the 

 epimerite in the zone of the processes, and obscures all 

 details of its structure (fig. 3). 



When kept under observation for some time — say an hour 

 or so — in NaCl solution, a curious phenomenon ensues. Just 

 at the line of junction between the protomerite and epimerite 

 a bubble-like vacuole appears, which gradually increases in 

 size, and carries with it the fringe of host tissue w^ith the 

 embedded processes till they sit like a crown on its upper 

 pole, sometimes symmetrically, sometimes displaced to one 

 side. Having reached a diameter about equal to that of the 

 protomerite the vacuole bursts, and the gregarine is suddenly 

 deprived of its epimerite (fig. 2). This vacuole formation has 

 been seen by Leger and Duboscq to occur in Pyxinia (14),, 

 and in my opinion has a probable bearing on the mooted 

 question regarding the fate of the gregarine epimerite, in the 



