THE TEAM-WEAVERS. 



59 



single fringed cell, sometimes as a many-celled fringed ball, 

 can evidently be classed with none of the other Protista, 

 and must be considered as the representative of a new 

 independent group. As this group stands midway between 

 several Protista, and links them together, it may bear the 

 name of Mediator', or Catallacta. 



The Protista of the fifth class, the Tram-weavers, or 

 Lahyrinthuleo}, are of a no less puzzling nature ; they were 

 lately discovered by Cienkowski on piles in sea water (Fig. 

 13). They are spindle-shaped cells, mostly of a yellow - 



Fig. 13. — Labyrinthula macro - 

 cyatis (much enlarged). Below 

 is a large group of accumulated 

 cells, oue of -which, on the left, 

 is separating itself; above are 

 two single cells which are gliding 

 along the threads of the reti- 

 form labyrinth which form their 

 " tramways." 



ochre colour, which are 

 sometimes united into a 

 dense mass, sometimes 

 move about in a very 

 peculiar way. They form, 

 in a manner not yet explained, a retiform frame of en- 

 tangled threads (compared to a labyrinth), and on the 

 dense filamentous "tramways" of this frame they glide 

 about. From the shape of the cells of the Labyrinthulese we 

 might consider them as the simplest plants, from their 

 motion as the simplest animals, but in reality they are 

 neither animals nor plants. 



