the Distinctive Characters in Amoeba. 123 



As also bearing directly on the characters of the Amoebina, I 

 have to record an important fact which revealed itself during my 

 examination of some of the material containing A. villosa. I 

 allude to the detection in Gromia oviformis of a well-marked 

 nucleus and nuclear vesicle. The contractile vesicle I failed to 

 trace; but, in the presence of the manifest analogies between 

 the Gi'omidce. and Lagynidce, suggested by this discovery, it is 

 extremely probable, I think, that this organ also may yet be 

 detected. Should it be so, the transfer of Gromia from the 

 lowest to the highest ordinal type of Rhizopod structure would 

 be rendered necessary. 



If the object now alluded to, in the paper on A. princeps, 

 under the term " reproductive cells," be identical, as I suppose, 

 with the "ovules" of Mr. Carter's former papers, these bodies 

 must differ from the former in the very material point of not 

 being nucleated. In the 'Annals' (ser. 2. vol. xviii. p. 223) 

 the term " ovule is applied to a number of discoid or globular 

 nucleated cells, which appear together in the sarcode of some of 

 the Infusoria. At an early stage, in Spongilla, Amoeba, &c., 

 these bodies consist of a transparent capsule, lined with a faint 

 yellow film of semitransparent matter, which, subsequently be- 

 coming more opake and yellowish, also becomes more marginated 

 and distinct, and assumes a nucleolar form." That these bodies 

 are the same seems certain, inasmuch as in Mr. Carter's recent 

 paper they are spoken of as having been shown in A. verrucosa, 

 under the first designation ; whilst, on referring to the paper on 

 that form and on Spongilla (Annals, vol. xx.), the general cha- 

 racters are identical with those of the bodies called " ovules " 

 in the latter place. 



But here, again, I am perfectly at a loss to reconcile the ap- 

 pearances and descriptions presented in one series of observa- 

 tions with those presented in the other. Above, it is stated 

 that the ovules are ''nucleated" {loc. cit.). In the ' Annals ' 

 for July 1863, p. 40, Mr. Carter affirms that he has " on no 

 occasion been able to detect a nucleus in these cells, or anything 

 like a germinal vesicle at any period of their existence — perhaps 

 because it eluded " his " search." It is true he is now speaking 

 of Amoeba princeps ; but, inasmuch as the Amoeba with a villous 

 appendage became known to him two years before he published 

 his general characters of Amoeba, in 1856, it is undeniable 

 that marked and apparently exceptional characters must have 

 been unnoticed by him. But, even as to the source whence 

 these bodies primarily spring, it is impossible to arrive at a 

 satisfactory conclusion regarding Mr. Carter's view; for, in op- 

 position to the appearances presented by the ovules in their 

 earliest state, as above cited from the paper of 1856, Mr. Carter 



