( Ivii ) 



very considerable resemblance to those two congeneric maiine forms 

 regarded as the type of a new family instituted by Cienkowski, and 

 named by him Labyrinthulea. In Schultze's " Aix-hiv fiir Mikr. 

 Anatomic," in a memoir entitled " TJeber den Ban und die Entwicke- 

 Inng der Labyiinthtdeen" (see also Quart. Jonrn. Micr. Sci., Tol. yii., 

 p. 277), that author gives an account of the new organisms so named, 

 found by him amongst algae on piles in the harboiu' of Odessa. These, 

 as stated by him, are characterised by being composed of three ele- 

 ments or constituents, the central mass, the sjjindles, and We filamentary 

 trades (" !Fadenbahn," Cienk.) In the organism now broiight forward 

 we have all these elements, that is to say, the central sarcodic ' ' body- 

 mass," the '' spindles," and the "filamentary tracks." In all, the 

 filamentary tracks are minute, exti'emely slender hyaline threads, 

 emanating from the central mass, stretching far and wide into the 

 surroimding water, and forming an irregularly connected, much rami- 

 fied, arborescent framework, along which the spindle-shaped bodies 

 travel slowly in gi'eat numbers, away from the central ''headquarters." 

 But the main distinction (apart of course fi'om minor differences of 

 colour and the like) between the '' spindles" in Cienkowski's forms 

 and the present is, that in the latter they are not nucleated, whilst in 

 the former they are. Another distinction is, that in the present 

 organism the aggregate body-mass presents a remarkable tendency to 

 become repeatedly encysted or coated with a thick hyaline multi- 

 laminated coveiing, the densely arborescent body-mass being only now 

 and again protruded through a tom-Kke opening in the covering ; this 

 coveiing gives the cellulose reaction on the application of iodine and 

 sulphtiric acid. Another important distinction lies in the fact that the 

 body -mass possesses, immersed in its substance, numerous irregTdarly 

 figured deep crimson-coloured pigment-gi-anules, giving to the 

 organism, viewed under moderate powers, a decidedly red colour. A 

 further difference of importance in the present form is its " parasitic" 

 habit, or, at least, the fact that in a younger state of existence it in- 

 habits the cells of acj[uatic plants, such as Sphagnum, the immersed 

 leaves of Eriophorum, Sedges, &c., or (in Connemara) the tissues of 

 Eriocaulon ; from these hosts it protrudes by and by, becomes re- 

 encysted, and at last removed. A minor distinction occiu's in the fact 

 that the spindles here are of a bluish hue, not as in Cienkowski's 

 forms, either orange-coloured or colourless. 



The curious organism is manifestly one of which at present no 



K. I. A., MINt'TES, SESSION" 1874-75. i 



