6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



thin radiating streaks, which become thicker and fuse with one another 

 until the area is, to a greater or less extent, filled with the dark brown 

 mass/ 



Specimens which are removed from the wall of the jar while 

 surrounded by the premonitory halo, and placed on cover-slips with 

 a small drop of water, will generally send out fresh pseudopodia and 

 attach themselves to the cover-slip. They may then be placed over 

 holes in filter paper through which a current of water flows, and the 

 hole be completely filled with water. In this way the animal is im- 

 mersed in circulating water. In some cases the pseudopodia thrown 

 out are of the short reticulated character of those forming the halo, 

 and these indicate that the process is going on uninterruptedly ; but 

 it frequently happens that though the animal attaches itself to the glass, 

 the pseudopodia are of the long, little anastomosing character of the 

 ordinary condition. In this case the protoplasm remains in the shell — 

 the animal having, owing to the disturbance, returned to the ordinary 

 state. If however the reproductive phase is continued, the process 

 may be observed under the microscope. 



When the protoplasm has emerged from the shell, the whole mass 

 undergoes amoeboid changes of shape,' and under the microscope may 

 be seen to be in a turmoil of movement," the protoplasm coursing 

 along in broad interlacing streams. The streams may be seen to 

 pursue a definite course, the protoplasm in any one part of the mass 

 moving in the same direction for many minutes without interruption. 



When newly emerged, the brown granules are uniformly scattered 

 through the protoplasm. Gradually a mottled arrangement is pro- 

 duced owing to the appearance of clear spaces (regions) free from 

 brown granules. As the process continues these clear spaces (regions) 

 become larger and more defined, and they are then seen to be more 

 stationary than the remainder of the protoplasm, the streams of 

 granules flowing past thent They are not however entirely stationary. 



In one instance the area free from brown granules first became 

 evident one and a half hours after the protoplasm had emerged from 

 the shell. 



Gradually the streaming movements of the protoplasm become less, 

 as the clear regions attain greater prominence, and in about half an 

 hour after their appearance the whole mass becomes broken up into 



' 1 : 55 p. m. 



^ The mass which is at first diffuse, gradually draws together into a more 

 compact mass, the pseudopodia being almost entirely withdrawn leaving branch- 

 ing lines of fine granules marking the positions they had occupied. J. J. L. 



^ 2 : 30 p. m. 



