58 THE HISTORY OF CEEATIOX. 



A very, remarkable new form of Protista, which I have 

 named Flimmer-hall (Magosphsera), I discovered only three 

 years ago (in September, 1869), on the Norwegian coast 

 (Fig. 12), and have more accurately described in my 



Fig. 12. — The Norwegian Flim- 

 mer-ball (Magosphaera planula) 

 swimming by means of its vibra- 

 tile fringes, as seen from the 

 surface. 



Biological Studies ^^ (p 

 137, Plate V.). Off the 

 island of Gis-oe, near Ber- 

 gen, I found swimming 

 about, on the surface of 

 the sea, extremely neat 

 little balls composed of a number (between thirty and forty) 

 of fringed pear-shaped cells, the pointed ends of which were 

 united in the centre like radii. After a time the ball dis- 

 solved. The individual cells swarmed about independently 

 in the water like fringed Infusoria, or Ciliata. These after- 

 wards sank to the bottom, drew their fringes into their 

 bodies, and gradually changed into the form of creeping 

 Amoebse (like Fig. 10 B). These last afterwards encased 

 themselves (as in Fig. 10 A), and then divided by repeated 

 halvings into a large number of cells (exactly as in the case 

 of the cleavage of the egg. Fig. 6, vol. i. p. 299). The cells 

 became covered with vibratile hairs, broke through the case 

 enclosing them, and now again swam about in the shape of 

 a fringed ball (Fig. 12). This wonderful organism, which 

 sometimes appears like a simple Amoeba, sometimes as a 



