Spongia coriacea of Montagu. 21 



between the cells themselves the intercellular mucilao-e " 

 [syncytium of Hiickel] . 



One cannot help observing here that, as the illustration to 

 the paragraph represents, the " granules " appear to have 

 been dragged off their cells (Kerne), to become scattered in the 

 pseudopodial sarcode, which thus also appears to be as homo- 

 geneous as that of an Amcpha. Yet it seems questionable 

 whether the cells from which this apparently homogeneous 

 sarcode has been derived do not still retain their individuality, 

 seeing that, in the conjugation (zygosis) of two Ehizopods, 

 they with their granules appear to flow together as intimately 

 as two drops of water, that is, their individuality becomes 

 lost ; they jDut forth their pseudopods afterwards as if 

 thoroughly amalgamated ; and yet, after a little while, they 

 separate and appear to be the same in every respect as they 

 were before the conjugation. Or, these cells and their 

 accompaniments can unmake and remake themselves as the 

 occasion may require and with the materials that are nearest, 

 — so inexplicable are the j^henomena manifested by poly morpliiG 

 sarcode ! 



Such facts would lead us to infer tliat the syncytium is 

 composed of a congeries of polymorphic cells, which thus 

 simulate a homogeneous substance, just as Rostafinski, and 

 previously to him his teacher, A. de Bary, I think, has 

 stated respecting that wonderful moving fungus ^thalium^ 

 viz. : — That '' the contents of the spores at the time of germi- 

 nation, give rise at first either to a naked zoospore provided 

 with a nucleus, a contractile vacuole and long cilia [?tvvo], 

 or to an amoeboid. These zoospores or amoebae flowing to- 

 gether in masses give rise to mobile plasmodia " (Rostafinski, 

 l)r. J., 'Monografia Sluzowce,' p. 83, in Polish, 1875; ap. 

 Cooke, ' Myxomycetes of Great Britain,' p. 1) ; while in my 

 observations on Ai^thalium at Bombay in 18G1 these appa- 

 rently homogeneous masses or plasmodia evinced, during the 

 restless unceasing changes in form of the fungus, the power 

 of moving about and running together like so much v/ater, of 

 constricting themselves isthmus-like almost to separation, of 

 flowing back together again, of spreading themselves out den- 

 dritically, and finally of ending in a motionless, circular, con- 

 vex mass, which soon became a heap of black-brown spores ! 



Returning to the syncytium of Grantia clathrus one finds 

 the granules so much more strikingly developed relatively 

 here than in the other forms of Calcisponges, that one cannot 

 help questioning their nature and import. 



Taking the granule singly, it is spherical, translucent, and 

 glairy, glistening from refraction of light, of a faint yellow 



