150 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



more lately still, I noticed, in Oonnemara, that Eriocaulon septangidare 

 also suited this organism as a host. 



On examining a piece of Sphagnum, or other plant bearing this 

 production, it may be often seen that the individuals are attached, 

 sometimes in crowds, sometimes singly, by one of the before-mentioned 

 neck-like prolongations, forming, as it were, a broad isthmus or neck, • 

 joining the great globose or lobed portion to the plant, but at other 

 times they seem to lie thereon without any e^^.dent union with it. 

 They are of variable size, and, as mentioned, of most variable shape. 



But on closely scrutinising some of the Sphagnum-leaves (ulti- 

 mately other leaves), I was still more siurprised to find very small 

 examples, with a simple wall, or perhaps with a wall of two laminae, 

 unmistakably inside the large hyaline cells, with annular and spiral 

 fibre. (PI. 15, fig. 2.) These little examples were in every respect 

 (except size and number of laminae of the coat) like the external 

 larger ones ; very small ones were of an ellipsoidal or subglobular 

 figure, but larger ones, not uncommonly, showed an elongate torulose 

 figure, simply due to the example, now enlarging so as to fill the cell, 

 becoming at intervals cinctured about, and by reason of its expan- 

 sive growth being constricted, by the recurring annular fibres of the 

 Sphagnum-cell. (PI. 15., fig. 2, middle and left.) Other cases could 

 be found where such little examples protruded, hernia-like, on the 

 sui'face of the leaf. Thereupon the " sarcode," with the granular 

 colouring contents, seem to pass up into the protrusion ; then, true to 

 its propensity, to form a fresh coat, leaving behind the original one, 

 and thus seemingly explaining how these bodies come to cover the 

 leaf here and there, attached thereto. (PI. 15, fig. 2, to right.) No 

 clue whatever have I been able to obtain as to how these bodies origi- 

 nally get into the cavity of the leaf -cell, or how their "germs" can 

 enter. No doubt, in Sphagnum, one could suppose small germs could 

 enter through the pre-existent openings or foramina in the wall of the 

 hy-aline cells, and through the same openings the hernia-like protru- 

 sions could make an exit without any material injury to the Sphagnum ; 

 for it is true that, for a length of time, it can thus harbour this 

 organism without seeming itself to sufi^er. But though this is so, it is 

 no less true that when this organism at last grows to excess, the 

 Sphagnum succumbs, gets eventually broken up, the tissue of the 

 "leaves" disappearing, and nothing left but the "stem" and 

 "branches" covered by this growth, and such portions seem to be at 

 last utterly "killed." 



But if it were supposed that in Sphagnum " germs" could make 

 their way through the foramina in the cells of the leaves, the same 

 sxipposition would not hold good as regards other j)lants, without such 

 normal openings in the cells. Of such, none offers a more striking 

 example than the cells (of the roots) of Eriocaulon. Of this curious 

 plant, small specimens are sometimes found fioating on the surface of the 

 water, and though defunct, their tissues seem not in any way injui'ed 

 or disturbed. Inside the cells of this plant small examples of this 



