The fine structure of an unusual cell, the ‘Stäbchendriisenzellen’ (the so‐called foliaceous or rodlet cells of several authors), associated with the endothelium of the vascular system of marine and freshwater fishes was studied in the goldfishCarassius auratus(L.). The bulbus arteriosus was fixed with either a 6 % solution of buffered glutaraldehyde or with one part of a 3 % solution of lanthanum nitrate plus two parts of a 3 % solution of buffered glutaraldehyde and then post‐fixed in a 1.2% solution of osmium tetroxide. Electron micrographs of the vascular tissue show four cell forms which appear to be phases in the life cycle of the endothelium‐associated cell. Two of the phases are not encased and are characterized by their inclusions: in one cell these are crystalline, while in the second, they are amorphous and granular. In the other phases the cell is encased partially or completely within an apparently contractile fibrous wall surrounded by the plasmalemma. In the encased phases, the arrangement and condition of the cell organelles appears to have been changed, and in the fully‐encased phase mitochondrial activity seems to have decreased. This apparent change in the mitochondrial activity is accompanied by a thickening of the mitochondrial membrane from 48 to 109 Å. The micrographs seem to indicate that this cell in question behaves as a foreign body and, in some way, may be interacting with the epithelial tissue of the bulb