DENDROSOMA RADIANS. 



The uext point investigated was the mauner iu which the 

 so-called buds were attached to the pedicle, and whether they were 

 destined to become new individuals, or remain as temporary or permanent 

 features of the creature. I had never found one in which I could trace 

 the least indication of the constriction which usually precedes separa- 

 tion, as observed in the process of gemmation in the Hydi'a, or fission iu 

 the Infusoria. I at length satisfied myself that the so-called buds are 

 nothing of the kind, being really extensions of the stem, which the 

 animal is able to produce ad libitum, and as readily withdraw again as 

 before described. Probably when plenty of food is present, or the 

 creature is sluggish in action, few of these processes are thrown out, but 

 when the miniate animalcules on which it feeds are scarce, or great 

 activity prevails, as before the process of multiplication, many of these 

 heads are necessary for fitting it to pei-fonn its functions. 



I then sought to ascertain the way in which food is taken in, because 

 that is perhaps the best general distinction between the Acineta and the 

 Actinophrys ; and as some may not be familiar with the mode in which 

 this Rhizopod accomplishes this important part of its work, I will briefly 

 describe it. The Actinophrys attacks its prey, consisting of living 

 animalcules, by its lance-shaped tentacles, which, in common species, 

 radiate in evei-y direction, and, being fm-nished with a sticky secretion, 

 and possibly also possessing an ui-ticating power, seize it and draw it 

 down to the sm'face of the body. Part of the tentacles are withdrawn to 

 allow of this, and the captured prey appears, so to speak, to melt its way 

 into the creature, just as a stone will melt its way into ice when the sun 

 shines upon it. The food of the Actinopkrys usually passes on towards 

 the centre of the body, where it is absorbed. 



In Dendrosoma the process is different. The food, which also 

 consists of Infusoria, only more minute, is indeed captm-ed by the 

 tentacles, but instead of being brought down to the body is held, if I may 

 so express it, at arm's length, and, as it appears under a low power, is 

 most mysteriously passed into the stem of the creatiu-e by their aid alone ; 

 only the more soUd parts of the prey remain, which always fall to pieces 

 in the end. Thus these dehcate organs perform a feat of dissection 

 far beyond the power of microscopists to imitate. A higher 

 power, however, proves that the tentacles, notwithstanding their extreme 

 tenuity, are tubes capped by a suctorial arrangement, capable not only 

 of seizing and holding their captives and resisting their struggles, but of 

 piercing their ectoderm, and, at the same time shortening and thickening, 

 of absorbing all the gelatinous part and small granules into the pedicle, 

 which is, in fact, the stomach of the creature. It sometimes happens that 

 two Dendrosomata will feed upon one animacule, like two chickens at a 

 worm, but it more frequently occurs that many Infusoria are being 

 ingested at the same time by one Dendrosoma, aU the heads being 

 actively engaged ; to quote Wordsworth's line, 



" Forty feeding like oiie." 



