142 THE MODE OF DEVELOPMENT 



nity of bees when swarming; then the cell which confines them 

 seems to be convulsed, and swells and stretches now and then, 

 until finally the end (a) bursts open, and the swarming globules 

 (C) are ejected in a body by the contracting cell. Occasionally 

 a few are left behind, (s,) and commence to develop within the 

 parent-cell. I wish particularly to draw your attention to the 

 form of the spores (fig. 83, C, and fig. 84, A) of Saprolegna, on 

 account of their resemblance to certain Infusoria. Compare 

 the zocispore, (fig. 84, A,) with its eye-spot-like nucleus, and its 

 single * vibrating lash (/) attached at the bottom of a notch at 

 one side, with the Euglena, (fig. 86,) and you will not wonder 

 that the spores of sea-weeds have been mistaken for animalcules. 

 It was no difficult matter in this case to prove that they were 

 the genuine seeds of the plant from which they came, and not 

 its parasites ; for in an hour and a quarter after they were set free, 

 and during which time I watched them constantly, they began to 

 stop their roving, and settling down upon terra firma with a sort 

 of sideway motion, as if trying to wedge themselves into some 

 hollow, they became globular, and insensibly lost the vibratile 

 cilium by what appeared to be a process of deliquescence. In 

 the course of two or three hours after this, one side of the 

 globule began to show distinct signs of growth by a slight pro- 

 tuberance, (fig. 84, B,) and consentaneously a distinct trace of a 

 cell-wall appeared upon its surface, in the same way as we have 

 seen it develop in the snow-plant (p. 137). In time the protuber- 

 ance lengthens so as to give the young plant a pear-shaped 

 figure, (C,) and then, continuing to elongate, it becomes tubula/ 

 in form, (D,) and, the rounded end at the same time growing 

 comparatively narrower, the whole soon assumes the shape of 

 the parent stock. It is not necessary to watch the growth of a 

 spore through all its phases up to the full-grown state, as every 

 step beyond what I have depicted here can be found exemplified 



* As these spores have not the two terminally attached cilia which Thuret 

 figures, it would seem that this plant must be not only specifically but generi- 

 cally distinct from Saprolcgna ferax. 



