Archer — On Chlamydomyxa LnhyrhdhuJoides. 147 



a less pronoiinced degree. But the question comes uip, how was this 

 remarkable action eiiected ? The little balls were suddenly ejected 

 and gTadually retracted, each in a quite straight radial line ; they 

 must have been held in by something, or they would have been shot off 

 beyond recovery, either by a minute special cord of sarcode, rapidly 

 evolyed and again gradually retracting, or they must have passed either 

 in or along the linear pseudopodia. If they passed up the middle of the 

 pseudopodium, it must be capable of great distension, or, if upon the 

 pseudopodium, they would seemingly be thi'own off beyond retrieval, 

 ujiless (like Actinosphserium) there were a subtle enclosing sheath 

 over a central axis to keep them in. Whether then it is possible to 

 compare the modus operandi of the rapid movement of the round 

 orange granules of the rhizopod alluded to, if on the pseudopodia, 

 with the slow gliding action of the " spindles" on the filtiform threads 

 in the present organism, may be a matter of question. 



Not less singular and ciirious than the spindles are the filamentary 

 tracks upon which they travel. There is no perceptible diifercnces in 

 their wiclth, or rather tenuity, either near the great main trunk, or at the 

 remotest extremity, or after a ramification. The main trunk and the 

 branches differ in size, as has been said, and a Irancli may become so 

 small as to show the contained granules, evidently loitliin it, in single 

 file, and even of that degree of slenderness it is still recognisable as a 

 branch, and it is at least as wide as a single granule or spindle. But 

 the filamentary tracks proper are (by comparison) much narrower 

 than the spindles, appear' like delicate "silvery" lines (eluding obser- 

 vation sometimes, owing to being out of focus), and they do not give 

 the idea of having the spindles in them (as does the finest branch), 

 but on them, even when doubtless they are upon its upper or lower 

 side, in relation to the observer. They are given off from all parts, 

 even from the hinder portion of the mass still within the envelope, 

 and it was not unfi-equent to see a few spindles travelling from the 

 margin of the body -mass to the wall. Further, it used not be unfre- 

 quent to see in a well- stretched out example that the granules remain- 

 ing behind embedded in the mass, still in the head-quarters, shoWecl 

 more or less of a reticulated arrangement in rows, as if due to the pre- 

 sence of some of the filiform tracks permeating the interior of the un- 

 issued mass. (PL 14.) Still my impression would be that these 

 remarkable linear tracks are comparable rather to pseudopodia, that is, 

 that they are sarcode prolongations evolved j^iro tempore, and that there 

 does not pre-exist a store of them, as it were, coiled up inside, waiting 

 the occasion ; on " squeezing" one of these no trace of them is seen in 

 the mass. Unlike the axis of the pseudopodia of Actinosphserium, I 

 have not seen that they penetrate downwards into the portion of the 

 mass whence they emanate, and hence one of the most singular puzzles 

 is that the little globular body about to travel, which without doubt 

 is distinctly in the general mass, when it passes to the base of the 

 filamentary track, ascends it, becomes fusiform, it noio appears on it. 



I have repeatedly tried in a variety of ways, by reagents, &c., to 



