and its Reproductive Cells, 41 



cells, or anything like a germinal vesicle at any period of their 

 existence — perhaps because it has eluded my search. 



They roll round the interior of the Amoeba with the sarcode 

 in which they are suspended ; and of course, when present, there 

 is no nucleus to be seen with them (fig. 1). But, as they 

 become matured, the Amceha grows slower and slower in its 

 movements, until at last it becomes stationary (fig. 4). The 

 pseudopodous prolongations are then only forced through 

 the pellicula here and there, in a transparent, attenuated state 

 (fig. 4 c c), the pellicula is thickened and corrugated, the rota- 

 tory motion of the sarcode has nearly ceased, and hardly any 

 food remains in the interior ; so that the parent Amopba is almost 

 reduced to an efiete capsule of reproductive cells. Beyond this 

 point of development I have not been able to follow it, because, 

 when the pseudopodous expansions of the diaphane cease, which 

 is the next step, there is, little to distinguish the mass from any 

 other Infusorium in a similar condition. 



But I presume, as I have before shown in A. verrucosa, &c., 

 that the parent after this becomes wholly effete, and that these 

 cells sooner or later become hatched into as many new 

 Amcebce. 



Whether each cell yields one Amosba only, or whether the 

 granules become enlarged into polymorphic ciliated cells which 

 ultimately pass into Amoeba respectively, but of smaller size, or 

 whether some of these cells yield one only, and others a group 

 of new Amoeba, is left for future observation to determine. 

 Both ways of propagation are common to the Rhizopoda; but 

 all that I can do here is to show that the largest of our Amoeba 

 produces reproductive cells like the rest, and very similar to 

 those of jEthalium. 



Two kinds of " spherical corpuscles," also, have been noticed by 

 Dr. Wallich in his Amoeba villosa, viz. one termed " nucleated," 

 •Tj-^jVoth to -j-yVirth of an inch in diameter, colourless, without cap- 

 sule, and consisting of a cell of " pale, nearly colourless, granular 

 protoplasm," and the other termed " sarcoblasts," -y-oVoth to 

 - 1 (i'a o th of an inch in diameter, faint yellow, oily-looking at first, 

 then colourless, also without capsule, but " distinctly granular 

 and nearly homogeneous throughout"*. 



Dr. Wallich also observed the ejection from A. villosa of 

 minute young ones, ^r-Votli to TTrVirth of an inch in diameter, 

 with all the characters of the parent, even to the "villous 

 tuft" t. 



Can the former be the same with the " reproductive cells," &c. 



* Ann. Nat. Hist. I. c. p. 435, pi. 10. figs. 5 & 6. 

 t Ibid. p. 442, pi. 10. fig. 10. 



