262 
NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
made an examination of a dried one, which, though not definitely 
solving the question, had tended to confirm an afl&nity to the sponges, 
within the interior being found one or more minute fragments which 
bore a strong resemblance, under a magnification of 800 diameters, 
to a pavement-like arrangement of the essential collar-bearing spon- 
gozoa in a desiccated state. 
When the living specimens were obtained they were in the first 
place transferred to a shallow zoophyte trough, and cursorily recon- 
noitred with a power of from 100 to 200 diameters only. This pre- 
liminary inspection yielded no positive results, the spicule-bristling 
capitulum in each instance maintaining the mute stolidity of the 
sphinx itself, and altogether refusing to yield up its secret. In one 
or two instances, however, there was the ghost of an appearance of 
syncitium-like sarcode embracing the base of some of the larger 
spicules. At the same time (and this must be accepted as a somewhat 
significant fact) not the slightest inward or outward current from the 
terminal orifice or any other region could be detected on adding a 
solution of carmine to the ^water, which may be almost immediately 
observed when experimenting in a similar manner on a living sponge. 
Proceeding now to a more intimate acquaintance with the organism, 
a lucky cut with a dissecting knife had the gratifying result of 
dividing a specimen evenly and longitudinally from one end to the 
other ; and this, submitted to no higher a magnifying power than the 
one previously employed, at once solved the riddle. Cord-like pro- 
longations of moving granular sarcode were seen at the severed edges 
extending from one to another of the projecting surfaces of the quartz 
granules or spicular fragments of which the skeletal framework was 
composed. Here and there these cord-like prolongations were, as it 
were, knotted into fusiform or globular dilatations, and these, by the 
contraction in opposite directions of the thinner portions, were now 
and then drawn slowly across from one end to the other of the same. 
The sarcode substance of the more interior portion corresponded 
closely with that of the knotted dilatations, except that in this more 
densely aggregated condition it presented a darker amber-like aspect. 
In a little while still finer thread-like extensions of this sarcode were 
thrust out from the denser mass, some as slender, attenuate, simple 
filaments, while others assumed a more or less branching form. 
Here and there the ramifications of these latter came into contact and 
anastomosed with one another, while in all was maintained a circula- 
tion of the granular contents identical in all ways with what obtains 
among the typical Foraminifera, such as Miliola and Botalia. A still 
more rigid examination with the aid of a magnifying power of from 
800 to as much as 2000 diameters failed to reveal the existence of 
any structures corresponding with the collar-bearing flagellate zooids 
of ordinary sponges, or, indeed, of any separate cellular elements 
whatever. Occasionally the globular or fusiform sarcode dilatations 
already mentioned exhibited, under this increased magnifying power, 
the presence within their interior of a nuclear-like body and sundry 
vacuoles, as represented in the plate accompanying the article. 
Beyond this, all consisted of a homogeneous, interblending, and 
