144 FrocecdiiKjH of the Royal Irish Academy. 



case as that just mentioned, of one of these hoclies passing right over 

 another in aclTance of it, sooner than allow it to remain a barrier to its 

 progress, the former may assume a rounded or even a globose figure 

 diuing the accomplishment of the act. (Its sliigyish motion, and its 

 often somewhat slug-Iihe figure, as it slowly passes up and over its pre- 

 decessor, seemingly at a standstill, might fancifully suggest a pair of 

 slugs, unable to do more than creep, making an effort to accomplish 

 between them but at best a veiy tardy game of "leap-fi'og !") But 

 when the little traTclling body has passed oyer the other, the fusiform 

 fig-ure is resumed. But nonnally, duiing progression, these bodies 

 may sometimes represent rather a semi-fusiform figui'e, that is, one 

 side may be rectilinear, this latter, when presented, being the side 

 applied to the capillary filament upon wliich it traTcls, and the con- 

 vex side raised up therefrom. During progression a still greater 

 alteration of figure fi'oni the ordinary fiisif onn may present itself when 

 one of these bodies amves at a fork of the filament ; then, as if it were 

 uncertain as to which route it ought to take, it becomes itseK bifur- 

 cated, and one leg follows one branch of the filament, the other* leg 

 the other branch, and so the little body, now triradiate, may for some 

 time remain, stationary, as it were, astride upon the bifurcation. 



These little eminently plastic bodies (one might roughly compare 

 one to a piece of gla/der's/jz^ff?/, or to dough) are, in fact, identical loitli 

 the little rounded or glohdar lluish homogeneous-loohing little granules 

 in the central mass to which attention was at fii'st directed, and which 

 ai'e distinctly fusiform only when upon the capiJlary filaments, although, 

 indeed, before they arrive there they may, some of them, appear 

 elliptic or subfusiform. That they are really one and the same thing, 

 notwithstanding the difPerence of figure between them as a rule, is seen 

 by watching the rounded granules deliberately proceed out of the 

 general central mass and pass up along one of the filaments ; as soon 

 as it has done so and begins to travel upwards, the globose figure is 

 lost and the fusiform outline is assumed. Soon follows another and 

 another, in just the same manner, and a more or less long cortege be- 

 gins its curious procession. By-and-by some of the little bodies may 

 retrograde, remain stationaiy, or again advance, or all may become 

 drawn in, capillaiy filaments and all, and the whole become reabsorbed 

 into the great central mass. "When one of the little spindles returns 

 from its joiuTiey it passes down fi'om off the capillary support and reas- 

 sumes a glolose figure, and joins the rest of the similai' granides within 

 the central mass. 



It is when a great ramified tree is thus formed, under the observer's 

 eye, perhaps in ten or twenty minutes, and numerous capillary fila- 

 ments spread in every direction, up and down and laterally and round 

 about, these well laden with spindles and the central mass thus thinned 

 out and wide spread and relieved of so gi'eat a proportion of the gi'a- 

 nular contents, that the beautiful play of vacuoles referred to can be 

 seen, and the whole object presents a spectacle, in its way, of unusual 

 and exceeding beauty. (PI. 14.") It must be borne in mind that the 



