﻿Notes v/pon a Rcrplosporidian. 



179 



features, although some stains bring them out more clearly 

 than others. The hsematoxylin in Heidenhain preparations 

 is usually washed out during the differentiation; and the 

 delicate rays are thus often rendered invisible. Ehrlich's 

 hsematoxylin stains them very clearly. I feel that these 

 structures are of some importance in this parasite, as they 

 dispose of the possibilities of what I have called the nuclear 

 membrane being at this stage really the spore membrane — 

 a not unreasonable hypothesis, in view of the condition 

 found in Coelosporiclium chycloricola?- 



The nuclei are relatively very small, but the size is 

 subject to some variation, though there does not seem to 

 be any very definite correlation with that of the whole 

 creature. There does, however, seem to me to be a relation 

 between the distribution of the nuclei and their size. The 

 nuclei may be arranged very evenly through the protoplasm, 

 which in these individuals is pretty generally, though not 

 invariably, of the homogeneous uninterrupted type (Fig. 2). 

 In these individuals the nuclei are usually large in size, 

 although the bulk of the whole parasite may vary. The 

 large parasites are, nevertheless, very often of the type just 

 described. Where the nuclei are arranged more closely 

 together in a core which runs through the parasite, they 

 are often smaller, and the protoplasm may show vacuolation 

 towards the centre (Fig. 3). Sometimes the nuclei are 

 arranged in concentric rings. It is doubtful whether there 

 is much significance in the question of the distribution of 

 the nuclei, or even in the variation in size. This last might 

 possibly depend on the relative length of time from the last 

 mitosis, or upon the relation of the number of nuclei to the 

 mass of protoplasm. 



I cannot, from any of the appearances presented by this 

 parasite, find that there is reason to suppose that the 

 increase in size of the space within the nuclear membrane 

 indicates that the structure is being differentiated into a 

 spore whose outer membrane corresponds with the nuclear 

 membrane. CauUery and Mesnil seem to have found this 



1 Arch. Zool. Exp., T. iv., No. 3, p. 142. 



