238 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 
bedded, causing them passively to yield toits outward changes of figure. 
It must be this outward stratum of soft sarcode which, by sending out 
long conical projections around certain pseudopodia, causes the spicula 
to assume a position with their length lying in the direction of the very 
gentle force produced by their gradual elongation, 
I should mention that this is a very fragile and, during manipula- 
tion, easily distorted organism; under even a slight pressure the out- 
line of the inner balls gets lost or even broken, and the chlorophyll 
granules, outer stratum, spicula and all, become confused into one in- 
distinguishable mass; it therefore requires some care to place one of 
these under the microscope for due examination; and it should be 
guarded from too great pressure, and allowed to remain on the slide 
for alittle to enable it to recover the shock sustained by its removal from 
the water; and often one finds, with all care, that a number of the 
spicula will be shed, without, however, otherwise injuring the spe- 
cimen. 
The spicula of this Rhizopod are not exactly either fusiform or cy- 
lindrical, but rather seem to present one side more curved than the 
other. They are, however, hardly falcate, but nearly straight or slightly 
curved and pointed at each end; in conveying an idea of their shape, it 
may possibly assist some to say they present an outline somewhat like the 
cells of the minute alga, Ankistrodesmus faleatus. ‘They do not seem 
at all to be hollow, thus unlike the ‘‘ spines” of Acanthocystis turfacea, 
and they resist the action of strong acid. 
The pseudopodia, on the most careful scrutiny, do not, at least to 
my eyes, show any trace of a current; they are colourless and rigid, 
never coalescing one with another. The chlorophyll granules in some 
specimens I have examined have shown very much of a starchy ap- 
pearance ; I regret that I have not yet made the experiment of adding 
iodine. 
From finding examples with one hollow-globular, central mass 
only, though uncommonly, and others with various, up to considerable 
numbers, it is readily conceivable that these must increase in number, 
and the group thus enlarge in size, by the repeated division of the cen- 
tral balls. And, in fact, I have taken specimens in which some of 
these balls were still held together by broad sarcode processes or by a 
single narrow isthmus-like connexion, some of the chlorophyll granules 
occupying the space intervening; sometimes these families themselves 
cohere into compound clusters, seemingly associated by a union of the 
pseudopodia, thus forming comparatively large groups; perhaps, rather, 
this may be the result of a separation of the larger groups into smaller, 
each retaining a share of the large balls and of the outer investing 
stratum, with its spicula. Except when so injured by pressure or some 
such accident, the chlorophyll granules do not extend beyond the boun- 
dary of the inner balls. 
I regret to say I have not found any other indication of a repro- 
ductive process, nor have I ever seen any trace of incepted food, though 
I have taken specimens at all seasons of the year. 
