CHLAMYDOMYXA LABYRINTHULOIDES. 1238 
breaks up into the interwoven threads, or is it the spindles 
themselves which directly build up the whole framework ? 
He replies, that naked clusters of spindles, or even isolated 
spindles, without combining basic substance, are so capable, 
and that the latter takes no share in forming the aggregate 
framework, but whether only the apices of the.spindles or 
their whole surfaces contribute to emit it he expresses himself 
as uncertain. ’ 
The other species described by Cienkowski, L. macrocystis 
agrees in all essential points with the foregoing. Its spin- 
dles are larger (0°018 to 0-025 mm.), of firmer consistence, 
the nucleus more sharply marked, the contents more granu- 
lar, than in L. vitellina, and they are colourless, or of a pale 
yellow tint. Neither iodine nor sulphuric acid produces a 
blue colour. As in the previous species the spindles increase 
by self-division. This form occurs on the piles at a higher 
elevation than the preceding, therefore not submerged except 
by the surf. Hence it is regarded by the author as explica- 
ble why, in this form, the spindles are more prone to pass 
into a “cyst” or “spore.” Preparatory thereto, the cells 
enlarge, become more richly granulate, darker in colour, the 
spindles become oval, and each acquires, besides its own 
membranous covering, a thick-walled smooth envelope ; the 
basic substance possesses a glassy, rather firm, consistence, 
retaining the outline of such “ cysts ” as are ejected by force ; 
on the surface of the cluster there is formed a granular layer 
of darker colour than in the interior. After a pause the 
contents of the encysted “spindles” become divided into 
four portions, the coat disappears and they remain free, 
as motionless globules. This taking place, in many instances 
produce numerous closely lying little groups, the little bodies 
soon assuming the fusiform figure, already accompanied by 
the “‘ tracks,” indispensable for their movements. 
Such is a very much epitomised abstract of the author’s 
memoir, and he sums up the conception of the Labyrinthulez 
as follows :— 
1. Clusters of nucleus-containing cells, increasing by 
division, possess a certain degree of contractility, at times 
becoming enclosed in a basic substance. 
2. ‘These cells give off a fibrous substance, which becomes 
formed into a rigid structure, forming reticulations and arbo- 
rescent ramifications. 
3. The cells leave the clusters, gliding away, by manifold 
circuitous routes, to the periphery of the drop, but the Laby- 
VOL, XV.—NEW SER, I 
