RESTING STATE OF CHLAMYDOMYXA LABYRINTHULOIDES. 31 



distance, forming a more or less elongated, annulated mass 

 (lig. 1 <?), but sooner or later bursts through its prison wall, 

 forming a more or less spheroidal droplet of protoplasm on the 

 outer surface of the leaf (fig. 1 d, e). Here growth goes on to a 

 great extent, the volume of protoplasm outside the leaf far 

 exceeding, in adult specimens, that contained within ; while fre- 

 quently the growth of the outer portion is still further assisted 

 by the passage of the whole or part of the protoplasm from the 

 interior to the exterior, either at once (fig. 20) or at successive 

 times (figs. 12, 21, 22), each recession of the protoplasm from 

 the first-formed wall continuous with that of the Sphagnum cell 

 being in the latter case very clearly marked by a corresponding 

 wall of cellulose. However, whether the protoplasm passes en- 

 tirely to the exterior or not, the organism remains firmly held 

 in its place by the continuity of the internal and older portion of 

 the cellulose wall with the new investment, and a great number of 

 specimens remain thus attached throughout life (figs. \f, 2 1, 

 22), as can be seen by placing an entire leaf of SjpJiagnum under 

 the microscope, although when the specimens are removed by 

 the aid of a needle the wall of course breaks at the narrow 

 neck which connects the outer and inner portions of the wall, 

 and their mode of attachment is thus apt to escape notice. 



The outer mass may either simply enlarge more or less regu- 

 larly, or if a long period of rest has intervened, and a cellulose 

 wall of great thickness and homogeneity has consequently been 

 formed, a new departure may take place, the wall giving way at 

 the weakest place, and a new outflow issuing forth. Such a 

 mode of growth, of course, gives rise to an extraordinary variety 

 of forms, the new outflow, apparently incipient in fig. 20, being 

 sometimes larger (fig. 1/"), sometimes smaller (fig. 8), than the 

 previous one -, sometimes, too, so nearly equal in size as to pro- 

 duce forms like figs. 9 a, 9 b. The newer mass usually remains 

 completely continuous with that of which it is an extension, but 

 sometimes is attached by a mere thread of protoplasm (fig. 8) or 

 of cellulose (fig. 9 J), or may no doubt sometimes also become 

 detached altogether, as seems to have been the case with one or 

 both of the two smaller masses in fig. 8. 



But while waste is continuous throughout life, growth is more 

 or less irregular, and size thus tends to be diminished. Some- 

 times the protoplasm shrinks within its wall, and fits it loosely 

 with a long-encysted amceba ; more frequently, however, after 

 recession to a certain distance a new cyst is thrown out as in 

 fig. 22 or fig. 13, the latter of which exhibits an interesting 

 alteration of growth and diminution. 



In the process of shrinking, a morsel of protoplasm, adherent, 

 perhaps, to the adjacent cell wall, or confined by the neck which 



