BHIZOPODA. 



23 



Fig. W.— Amoeba diffluem Elir. A, the 

 left-hand figure, the most ueual form ; the 

 right shows the hroad, flat pseudoi^odia ; 

 the arrows indicate the direction of circula- 

 tion of the granules.— After Clark. 



(pseudopodia) from various parts of the body, as if it 

 were falling apart ; tlien it retracts these transparent feet 

 and becomes perfectly smooth and rounded, resembling a 

 drop of slimy, mucous mat- 

 ter. The body-mass is di- 

 vided into a clear cortical and 

 a medullary, granular mass ; 

 the outer highly contractile, 

 the inner granular portion 

 acting virtually as a stock of 

 food. These granules, like 

 the grains of chlorophyll in 

 vegetable cells and in dia- 

 toms and desmids, circulate in regular, fixed currents, the 

 arrows in the figure indicating the course of the circulating 

 food. The act of circulation is probably assisted by a con- 

 tractile vesicle (or 

 vacuole) usually 

 present. Thei-e is 

 besides a distinct 

 organ always pres- 

 ent, the nucleus (.see 

 Fig. 11), so that the 

 Amoeba earns the 

 right to be called 

 an organism. Its 

 food consists of one- 

 celled algai, diatoms, 

 desmids, zoospores, 

 and portions of fila- 

 nientoas algae, and it 

 possesses the power 

 of discrimination in 



Fig. 1\.— Anuria gpfUBro'-ocom. /i. nefore division. , . ., „ , mi 



... .. . .1 i„J.„„J rjj^g 



taking its food. 



ilg. W.—Anufha sphaiwoeaiu!. A. hefore division. 

 B, iSe same in its resting siagc; a. cyst or cell-wall; 

 rf, body-raass; c. nucleus; 6. nucleolus. C, Amoeba . i i .i 



nearly divided. J), two young Amoebae, the result of AmCBDa lias the pOW- 

 division, — After Haeckel. j! • • 



ui «iu ^^ a. gj, ^j moving m par- 



ticular directions, stretching a millimetre in length ; it 

 selects appropriate food, and can engulf or swallow, digest 

 and distribute the food thus absorbed to various portions of 



