PROTOPHYTIC AND OTHER FUNGI. 



319 



Growth of Enterobryus spiralis from 

 mucous membrane of stomach of lulus: 

 a, epithelial cells of mucous membrane; 

 6, spiral filament of enterobiyus ; c, pri- 

 mary cell ; d, secondary cell. 



the accompanying illustrations (Figs. 201, 202) are shown some of the 

 forms of the Enter obry us, 1 which has been found by Dr. Leidy 2 to be so 

 constantly present in the stomach of certain species of lulus (gaily worm), 

 that it is extremely rare to meet with individuals whose stomachs do not 

 contain it. The Enterobryus originally consists of a single long tubular 

 cell, which sometimes grows in a spiral 

 mode (Fig. 201); sometimes straight and 

 tapering (Fig. 202, A). In its young 

 state the cell con tains a transparent pro- 

 toplasm, with granules and globules of 

 various sizes; but in its more advanced 

 condition the tube of the filament is oc- 

 cupied by cells in various stages of de- 

 velopment; these distend the terminal 

 part of the cell (Fig. 202, B), and press 

 so much against each other that their 

 walls become flattened; whilst nearer 

 the middle of the same filament (c) we 

 find them retaining their rounded form, 

 and merely lying in contact with each 

 other; and at the base (D), they lie de- 

 tached in the midst of the granular 

 protoplasm. In E. spiralis the pri- 

 mary cells (Fig. 201, b, c) very com- 

 monly have secondary and even ternary cells (d) developed at their ex- 

 tremities; but this is rarely seen in E. attenuatus (Fig. 202). It may be 

 considered as next to certain that the tubular filaments rupture, when 

 the contained cells have arrived at maturity, and give them exit; and that 

 these cells arc developed, under favorable circumstances, into tubular 

 filaments like those from which they sprang; but the process has not yet 

 been thoroughly made out. This is obviously not the true Generation of 

 the plant, but is analogous to the" development of zoospores in Aclilya 

 ( 250). It is not a little curious, moreover, that the Entozoa or para- 

 sitic Worms infesting the alimentary canal of these animals should be 

 often clothed externally with an abundant growth of such plants; in one 

 instance, Dr. Leidy found an Ascaris bearing twenty-three filaments of 

 Enterobryus, "which appeared to cause no inconvenience to the animal, 

 as it moved and wriggled about with all the ordinary activity of the species." 

 The presence of this kind of vegetation seems to be related to the pecu- 

 liar food of the animals in whose stomachs it is found; for Dr. Leidy 

 could not discover traces of these or any other parasitic plants in the ali- 

 mentary canal of the carnivorous Myriapods which he examined; whilst 

 he met with a constant and most extraordinary profusion of vegetation 

 in the stomach of a herbivorous Beetle, the Passulus cornutus, which 

 lives like the luli, in stumps of old trees, and feeds as they do on decay- 

 ing wood. 



316. There are various diseased conditions of the Human skin and 

 mucous membranes, in which there is a combination of fungoid Vegeta- 



)lant, also, has much affinity to Algae in its general type of structure, and 

 to that group by many botanists; but the conditions of its growth, as 



. A j? a --. ._ j_i ._ J " ^~ L^ Z-i.^. ,^ SG i 4- -r - -4-.<-v 4-V/^ ITS in 0-1 a Tirl nirfil 



1 This pi 

 is referred 1 



in the case of Sarcina, "seem rather to indicate its affinity to the Fungi; and until 

 its proper f mctification shall have been made out, its true place in the scale must 

 be considered as undetermined. 



"Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," Vol. v. 



