20' Mr. H. J. Carter on Freshwater Rhizopoda 



visionally called A. Gleichenii ? (figs. 5-8), showing its different 

 stages from the active to the passive capsuled condition, as it 

 affords the only instance that I have ever noticed of an Amop.ba 

 becoming covered with a distinct, peculiar, brown, chitinous (?) 

 capsule. It was observed at Bombay, just before the commence- 

 ment of the "rainy monsoon," on the 13th of June 1855 ; and 

 the figures in my journal are accompanied by the following 

 remarks : — 



" Took some water from a tank in the garden, which had be- 

 come nearly dry, leaving the shallow pool which remained in it 

 scattered over with patches of Oscillatoria, and the water ren- 

 dered green by the presence of Euglena. Found this water 

 nearly filled with large Amoeba, which were very active and 

 contained fresh green and brown or half-digested food ; also a 

 number of circular, colourless, semitransparent, apparently cap- 

 suled, refractive bodies, of different sizes, the largest -.ya'coth of 

 an inch in diameter [these, at the time, I viewed as " ovules j" 

 they may have been the " reproductive cells ;" they could hardly 

 have been starch-granules, from their circular form] ; a large 

 spherical nucleus containing a faintly marked nucleolus, a con- 

 tracting vesicle, and granules. Having put some scores of these 

 into a little clean water in a watch-glass, at 12 o'clock in the 

 day, I found that the greater part of them, by 10 a.m. on the 

 following day, had become respectively enclosed in a round, 

 conical, rough, brown capsule, which was attached to the watch- 

 glass by its point or by a short pedicle prolonged therefrom. 

 Many others were seen in different stages between the most 

 active and the entirely fixed and capsuled condition, as repre- 

 sented in the figures to which I have referred. It was remark- 

 able to witness the increasing density of the pellicle, as indicated 

 by the difficult and sudden way in which the sarcode every now 

 and then burst through the surface of those individuals which, 

 although uncapsuled and still transparent, were already fixed by 

 their pedicle to the glass. Some of the largest of these Amcebce, 

 in a subround state, measure Voth of an inch in diameter. In 

 their most active condition they moved about by globular ex- 

 pansions ; and in no instance did I observe any pointed ones. 

 Perhaps this kind of polymorphism may have been induced 

 by the thickening of the pellicle, and at another period the 

 pseudopodia might have been pointed. The sides of the tank, 

 which was excavated in trap-rock, were scattered over with dried 

 masses of Spongilla, and the little water that was left in it be- 

 strewn with their capsules." 



I tried to repeat the experiment nst mentioned ; but Coleps, 

 the most destructive of all the Infusoria, became developed in 

 the watch-glass, which appeared overnight to contain nothing 



