62 MANUAL OF ZOOLOGY. 



dictyon). Sometimes the organism passes through a quiescent 

 stage, alternating with an active and locomotive phase of 



Fig. 7. Morphology of Monera. a Protamoeba, porrecta. ', b Protomyxa auran- 

 tiaca ; c The same in an encysted condition. Greatly magnified. 



existence. No hard covering or "test" is ever developed. 

 Reproduction is mostly by fission, with or without precedent 

 encystation (fig. 7, b and c) and quiescence. All the Monera 

 live in water, and their systematic position is uncertain. From 

 the general nature of the pseudopodia, and the fact that the 

 sarcode is not differentiated into an " ectosarc " and an " en- 

 dosarc," they appear to be most nearly allied upon the whole 

 to the Foraminifera, from which they differ chiefly in the 

 absence of a shell defending the soft protoplasm of the body, 

 as well as in the constant absence of a nucleus. 



The name of Bathybius was given by Professor Huxley to a structure 

 believed to consist of irregular, formless, diffused masses of protoplasm, 

 without nucleus or contractile vesicle, found at great depths in the sea ; 

 and, if organic, the place of Bathybius would be amongst the Monera. 

 More recently, however, Professor Huxley and Sir Wyville Thomson have 

 expressed the opinion that Bathybitis is not really a living organism at all ; 

 and it only requires mention here because a similar structure, the true 

 nature of which still requires investigation, has recently been described by 

 Bessels under the name of Protobathybius. 



ORDER II. AMCEBEA. This order comprises those Rhi- 

 zopoda which are, with few exceptions, naked ; have usually 

 short, blunt, lobose pseudopodia, which do not anastomose with 



