3§7 
A Iga-like Organism. 
interesting from its resemblance to the usual habit of many 
organisms of dividing when they have encysted themselves 
after a motile stage. 
The peculiarity of there being usually more than one 
cross-wall formed, when the masses of protoplasm enter the 
quiescent state, may well be accounted for by supposing that 
this condition comes on gradually. Whether the inferior ends 
of the protoplasmic masses contract from below the entire 
distance from the lowermost cross-wall to the last formed, or 
whether there is also some forward growth of the filament at 
the same time as the contraction, the writer cannot say. The 
variation in the size of the empty cavities and of the masses 
of protoplasm makes it difficult to draw general conclusions 
on this point. 
However much this organism may resemble such forms as 
Euglena in the character of the cells, the peculiarities of its 
filament, made up of compartments, certainly give it a right 
to a position quite apart from any form that the writer has 
seen described. It is the nature of this chambered filament 
that has led the writer to associate the organism with certain 
genera that are usually considered as plants. 
If this organism is to be considered as a plant, its affinities 
are closest with certain genera of the family Tetrasporeae, as 
Wille 1 considers the group. As is well known, the genera 
of this family differ much among themselves, and this plant 
has several important characters that are not to be found at 
all in the forms which in other respects are most nearly related 
to it. 
The cell-structure of Chlorangium 2 most closely resembles 
this organism, and the zoospores agree in being produced 
singly from a vegetative cell, but there are important dif- 
ferences in the nature of the chromatophore, presence of 
1 Wille, in Engler and Prantl, Die naturliehen Pflanzenfamilien, Lief. 40, p. 43, 
1890. 
2 Cienkowsky, Ueber Palmellaceen und einige Flagellaten (Arch. f. mikr. 
Anatom. B. 6, p. 421, 1870). Stein, Der Organismus der Infusionsthiere, 
III. Abtheilung, 1. Halfte, 1878. Wille, loc. cit. 
