16 THE ACT1NOPHRYS SOL. 



But although presenting thus scarcely any marks of distinct or- 

 ganization, the Amoeba is by no means the dull and uninterest- 

 ing creature that one would be apt to imagine. Its most obvious 

 peculiarity, indeed, is the facility with which it incessantly alters 

 its form ; long finger-like processes being pushed out first from 

 one part and then from another, the body of the animal mean- 

 while gradually flowing, as it were, into these divergent portions, 

 and so progressing irregularly from point to point of the surface 

 on which it rests. 



One would suppose that an animal so exceedingly simple in 

 structure, and so apparently helpless, would be a very inoffensive 

 neighbour ; but the truth is that, in its small way, the Amceba 

 is quite a terror at the bottom of our ponds and ditches. Its 

 special weakness in the matter of diet appears to be the Diato- 

 macejE ; but nothing comes amiss : and, as it goes shambling 

 along in its uncertain way, over the surface of the mud or the 

 stems aud leaves of the aquatic plants, it DO sooner meets with 

 any object suitable for food than it proceeds very deliberately to 

 wrap its body around it, nor is the prize again relinquished until 

 all its juices have been extracted, the entire surface of the ani- 

 mal taking part in the appropriation of the nutriment. 



In another of these simplest Protozoa, closely related to the 

 Amceba, the finger-like processes, or pseudopodeee, as they are 

 termed, take the form of simple threads, which radiate from the 

 spherical body of the animal, and give it much the appearance of 

 the " Eising Sun," as artistically represented on the signboards 

 of our wayside inns ; whence it is no doubt that the animal in 

 question has received the appropriate name of Actinoplirys sol. 

 The Actinophrys is a far less vivacious creature than its pro- 

 tean ally, and rarely does much in the way of locomotion, 

 while its filamentary pseudopodeaa are usually kept rigidly pro- 

 truded. It is by these threads, however, that the animal secures 

 its provender, and directly one of the number seizes hold of any 

 minute object of a nutritious character, it forthwith begins to 

 retract itself, and is presently joined by the neighbouring fila- 

 ments, which coalesce with each other, and thus actually imbed 

 the prey in their gelatinous substance before it has reached the 

 surface of the captor's body. Once there, however, it is carried 

 by means of an opening improvised for the purpose, into the 

 interior of the body, whence the indigestible portions are in due 



