352 W. ARCHER. 



some time, it is often sufficiently difficult on a fresh occasion 

 to refiucl the rhizopod itself amongst the mass of debris so 

 frequently unavoidably taken up in one's efforts to alight upon 

 these forms, often so fond, apparently, of lurking commingled 

 therewith in some out-of-the-way ambuscade. Where we as 

 yet really seem to, differ is in our conception of the outer 

 region, external to the sharply contoured body-mass giving 

 off the pseudopodia ; this these authors cannot regard as any 

 kind of granular protoplasmic sustance, but as " a skeleton 

 of extraordinary delicacy, so much so that the highest powers 

 allow only an insufficient resolution of its composition." 

 They rightly describe its appearance, separated as it is from 

 the surface of the body by an extremely narrow but distinctly 

 evident clear space, and as if united thereto only by means of 

 the pseudopodia, as that of " a stratum of granules, dots, and 

 fine striae, from which^ arise extremely fine spines in a more 

 or less regular radial arrangement. However much at first 

 glance the skeleton gives the impression of a loose and trans- 

 itory consistence, it still possesses a considerable coherence. 

 We could not perceive, so long as the organism was alive, 

 that it became disintegrated, or that, when dead, any breaking 

 up of the skeleton was induced. The apparently granular 

 stratum can indeed hardly consist of cemented granules, since 

 these could scarcely remain so firmly combined as to form for 

 the spines seated there on a secure basis." They then compare 

 this external (so-called) skeleton-portion to the '' spongy " 

 fabric described by Hackel as appertaining to many Kadio- 

 larians, only of much greater delicacy ; or again they compare 

 it to a skeleton of spicules felted together after the manner of 

 a sponge fabric. 



I confess from all this to see not any reason to materially 

 alter my original conception of this portion of the build-up 

 of the forms falling here ; although the description given by 

 these authors of its optical appearance is unquestionable, the 

 fimbriate border presented by H. myriopoda seems to me not 

 to be due to the presence of spines. Were they such (like 

 Acanthocystis) they should occasionally (by pressure or other- 

 wise) be capable of being detached ; but they appear to me 

 simply as slender, but somewhat rigid, prolongations of the 

 superficial stratum or outer region of this investing envelope. 

 Still they do not seem comparable to pseudopodia ; they 

 doubtless seem rigid, but scarcely hard, linear processes. In 

 an example of a form found by me in a moor pool not seem- 

 ingly distinguishable from H. marina, Hertwig and Lesser, 



' (In Heteroplirys myriopoda, H. marina). 



