118 Ww. ARCHER. 
acquaintance. A word or two is requisite as regards the 
application of reagents. 
I was surprised on applying iodine and sulphuric acid to 
find that this curious multilaminated coat, so conspicuous a 
portion of the make-up of this organism, gave a brilliant 
indigo blue colour, accompanied by a great swelling up of 
the constituent Jaminz, the outer of which took somewhat of 
a violet colour (Pl. VII, fig. 6). In other words, this coat 
gave in a marked manner the cellulose reaction. At same 
time the inner basic substance acquired a pale homogeneous, 
somewhat verdigris green hue, and the granules, a brassy 
or yellowish colour, and shiny appearance, and became simul- 
taneously of quite spherical figure, and rather small and 
regular size, each with a dark contour. 
Boiled in caustic potash, a great swelling up and separa- 
tion of the outer lamine of the coat took place; and to some 
extent, the same in cold potash ; the basic substance assumed 
a yellowish, sometimes faintly greenish, hue, and the granules 
became perfectly globular, more varied in size than under 
the iodine and sulphuric acid, but quite oily and shiny in 
appearance, and of a greenish-yellow colour (Pl. VII, fig. 5). 
In Beale’s carmine solution no very marked change 
ensued, and, as before mentioned, no body evinced itself any- 
where as a nucleus, nor did any portion take indeed any 
extra dye. 
Alcohol deprived the red granules of their colour, and 
changed the whole contents to a somewhat greenish yellow. 
Such is the curious organism as it presented itself the first 
and second season of my meeting with it. Since then, much 
to my vexation, I have failed to encounter, except very rarely, 
examples displaying the active condition described ; but it 
always now presents itself closely wrapped up in its coat, and 
densely filled with a preponderance of red granules. In 
that condition it is prone to occur, in considerable quantities, 
on the submerged surface of aquatic plants in the pools 
which it affects. The very first examples I met with were 
free at the bottom of the pool; and I therefore tried to 
examine this, to me, new phase more closely. 
The first plant on which I noticed this was Sphagnum, 
but I soon found that this was only because other aquatics 
were more scarce in the pool; for the submerged leaves of 
sedges, of Eriophorum, &c., and more lately still, I noticed, 
in Connemara, that Hriocaulon.septangulare also suited this 
organism as a host. 
On examining a piece of Sphagnum, or other plant bearing 
this production, it may be often seen that the individuals are 
