Scientific Memoirs by
forms and the typical commas present in the cultivation showed very great
range of variation as to size, some being very minute, some of relatively colossal
proportions, and an insensibly gradated series of intermediate forms serving to
connect those presenting extremes of magnitude with one another. The only
difference appreciable between the largest and smallest specimens of the various
forms was one of size. The vacuolate bodies varied very greatly in form, in
some cases being circular, in others almost semi-circular, in others elliptical or
fusiform, and in still others curved. Some of the curved forms clearly presented
the characters of commas including one, two, or three vacuoles. Others were
thickened in varying degree by filling up of the curve, and where this had
advanced far they necessarily more or less presented semi-circular, hemi
-elliptical, or semi-fusiform contours according to the character of the curve of
their convex contour. All varieties of vacuolate forms were accompanied by
corresponding non-vacuolate bodies in varying numbers. The circular, fusiform
and elliptical specimens occurred either singly or associated in pairs. The
degree of vacuolation differed greatly in individual specimens, the vacuolar area
in some cases being relatively very large, in others extremely small. In the
former case the precise distribution of the colored protoplasm varied in different
instances. In the case of the circular, and fusiform bodies the vacuole was
centrally situated and the protoplasm formed a more or less even marginal band.
In the elliptical ones the arrangement was sometimes of the same nature, at
others the protoplasm appeared to be accumulated at the opposite poles, being
resolved into two seemingly distinct portions separated from one another by the
vacuolar space. In the case of the commatous, and the semi-circular or other
plano-convex forms the vacuole was either centrally situated or in immediate
relation to the concave or plane edge. In those commas with a central vacuole
the protoplasm was in some cases resolved into two distinct polar bodies, while
in others it formed a continuous rim (Plate III, Fig. 1B).
All the vacuolate forms above described were accompanied by a corre
-sponding series of other forms showing various stages in the process of their re
-solution into commas of various sizes. In the case of the circular bodies of this
class in most instances the peripheral rim of protoplasm could be seen in differ
-ent stages of resolution into a pair of commas, due to the occurrence of a solu
-tion of continuity at two distinct points. The resulting commas were in some
cases of approximately equal sizes, in others one was larger than the other due
to the solution of continuity not having taken place at corresponding points in
the protoplasmic ring. Specimens were present showing varying degrees in the
process of dissociation of the pairs of commas. In many cases they remained
for some time adherent to one another by one extremity and where they had
done so and at the same time extreme divergence of the opposite free extremi
-ties had occurred figure of three or even V shaped bodies were present. In
other cases, especially in those where the process of resolution tended towards
the development of commas of unequal size, convergence in place of divergence
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