Miscellaneous. 207 
Several free cells, having rays, were observed, upon touching a 
ray of the Actinospherium, to glide down it in the manner usual to 
captured prey, and be reabsorbed into the body. 
One globule of protoplasm, running out towards the point of a 
ray, stopped, and while motionless sent out a long ray at right 
angles to that supporting the globule. Another smaller globule ran 
out on this secondary ray, and, in its turn, sent out a third ray at 
right angles to the secondary ray, but parallel to the primary ray. 
It has been stated that the rays of the Actinospherium never 
branch; but the observer thought that the above phenomenon 
could be truly called branching, as all the protoplasm returned to 
the main ray, and thence to the body. 
To ascertain whether any globules of protoplasm artificially freed 
from the body of the Actinospherium would develop in the same 
manner as those above described, an Actinospheriwm was crushed in 
the live-box so violently as to completely disintegrate it. The vacu- 
oles were broken up, and the internal mass of protoplasm mixed 
with the water, only two or three small masses of the external vacuoles 
remaining intact. Onremoving the pressure all the fluid protoplasm 
was seen to gather itself up into globules, of sizes varying from 
*0507 millim. to °253 millim. 
These globules contained vacuoles, the size and number of the 
vacuoles varying with the size of the globules. The water became 
free from protoplasm, though a large number of the granules, which 
had been contained in the external vacuoles previous to the crushing 
of the Actinospherium, remained swimming actively about in every 
direction. 
The globules remained quiet for some minutes, and then began to 
extend pseudopodial rays. The vacuoles increased in number, and 
arranged themselves close to the exterior of the globules, those of 
the largest size pushing out the thin protoplasmic covering, so as to 
produce a strong resemblance to the perfect Actinospherium. The 
resemblance of each globule to the original Actinospheriwm became 
more and more perfect. The few masses of the’ original vacuoles 
also protruded rays, thus conclusively showing that the rays of 
Actinospheria are not necessarily dependent upon the central mass 
of protoplasm. The vacuole masses developed into perfect Actino- 
spheria much more quickly than the globules formed of the central 
protoplasm, an hour or two being sufficient to perfect the develop- 
ment. The rays of all the immature Actinospheria were irregular 
and flattened, and in many cases lacked the axial thread. 
The Actinospheria moved their pseudopodial rays freely in all 
directions, the rays being bent close to the peripheral layer of 
vacuoles. 
From an original colony of eight individuals a small bottleful was 
manufactured in the manner above described, the time needed for 
development being in proportion to the size of the fragments into 
which the Actinospheria were divided. The above experiments 
were tried on many individuals, the only difference of result, in the 
various instances, being in the degree of completeness with which 
the protoplasm separated itself from the water. It was argued from 
