108 , W. ARCHER. 
to the number of laminz of which it is made up, but even 
the thinnest or such as possess but a single lamina would, on 
the whole, be called “ thick walled ” as compared with many 
vegetable cells. This wall is hyaline, and when viewed 
superficially it is colourless or nearly so, but when viewed 
edgeways or at the margin of a many-laminated example, 
where a considerable density is therefore seen through, it 
appears of a pale straw colour or brassy hue and extremely 
shiny and glossy. Its consistence is tough, requiring strong 
pressure on the covering-glass to burst it (Pl. VII, fig. 4). As 
mentioned, the outward figure is most varied; globose or broadly 
oval might, perhaps, be called the typical, but examples lobed 
in a variety of ways are extremely frequent. Nearly always, 
from one, two, or more places, are given off neck-like exten- 
sions of greater or less width, terminating in a lacerated 
manner ; these are produced, as it were, by the prolongations 
laterally of a certain number, greater or less, of the laminz 
composing the wall, and then as if abruptly torn off (Pl. VI; 
Pl. VII, figs. 3, 4, 5.) 
Leaving the outer envelope for the present, and passing to 
the inner soft and plastic “ living’”’ portion, this is not a 
simple or homogeneous plasma or sarcode, but it is itself com- 
posed of several seemingly distinct elements. ‘The first of 
these is the basic substance of hyaline character, forming the 
common connecting medium of every other element (except, 
of course, the outer cyst or envelope alluded to) when the 
organism is in what may be called its state of repose, a state 
in which seemingly by far the greatest portion of its existence 
is passed. But at times a far more striking and remarkable 
phase presents itself when further structural elements of 
the “ living”? portion or contents come to view, to which I 
shall advert in the order in which they would most probably 
attract attention of an observer examining an example in 
“ good order” of this production for the first time. 
Since I met with this organism, on the first occasion in a 
single pool in the Co. Westmeath, I have found it in several 
not very distant sites in Connemara, having since then learned 
to detect its presence in quantity by the reddish colour pre- 
sented to the eye in the mass, in the dormant or encysted 
condition, so abundant does it eventually become in pools 
where it occurs. Upon the earlier occasions of taking it, 
indeed, the red colour was by no means so prominent a 
characteristic as it seemed to have rendered itself subsequently, 
but it was still a sufficiently striking feature. 
In examples (especially as more lately taken) it is just 
this reddish colour which would likewise first attract notice 
