133 
into some threads ceasing ; and at times an interruption oc- 
curred in the midst of the course of a current. The central 
part of a thread thus interrupted, was drawn back into 
its. own thickened base, in place of which the peripheral 
portion was carried over in the course of the current of the 
neighbouring thread. With the fine granules small foreign 
bodies also circulated along the threads ; these had accident- 
ally touched the surface of the threads, been captured, and 
were now seized up by the sarcode-current, and carried along 
by it. That the sarcode is actually a consistent substance, 
and that the granules and foreign bodies suspended in it are 
really carried along by the flowing and ever-changing plasma- 
stream, can be observed as certainly in Myxodictyum as in 
Protogenes and in the true Rhizopoda (Acyttaria and Radio- 
laria). In all probability the taking of nourishment also 
proceeds in Myxodictyum exactly as in the last-mentioned 
Protozoa. Certainly, in the single example which I observed 
at Algesiras, and which I could only examine for a few hours, 
there were no larger foreign bodies, such as diatoms, peri- 
dinise, &c., to be observed inside the plasma-substance. 
However, in the true Rhizopoda, as well as in Protogenes 
and Myxastrum, when they have recently taken abundance 
of nourishment, as soon as the indigestible remains are re- 
jected, all foreign bodies may be absent. The great number 
of circulating granules in the plasma-body of the Myxo- 
dictyum seem to indicate that abundant nourishment had 
been recently taken, and there is no reason to believe the 
above-mentioned phenomena to be different in it from those 
observed in Myxastrum, in Protomyxa, and in the true 
Rhizopoda. 
The appearance presented by the remarkable net-like sar- 
code body of Myxodictyum socicde under a high power (400 
diam. fig. 31) strikingly resembles the similar appearance 
which a Polycyttarian or social Radiolarian ( e . g. Collozoum, 
Collosphsera) displays under a low power. 1 The seventeen 
separate radiating sarcode-layers, which lie in the meshes of 
the net, correspond to the separate central capsules (morpho- 
logical individuals) of the Polycyttarian colony. Imagine 
a colony of Collozoum without the central capsules, the 
alveolus, which carries the sarcode-net, and the yellow cells, 
which are interspersed herein, and you have a complete 
picture of the Myxodictyum. 
This comparison is of importance for the morphological 
explanation of the Myxodictyum. For the entire body ap- 
1 Compare the figures of Sphcerozovm italicum (Taf. xxxiii, Gg. 1); and of 
Collozoum inerme (Taf. xxxv, fig. 13) of niv ‘Monograph of Eadioiaria.’ 
