SPONTANEOUS MOVEMENTS IN PLANTS. 283 



tivity until they come into contact with the opening of the archego- 

 nium or female organ, which they enter, and thus fructify the germ of 

 the new plant. Pringsheim describes the process by which the sper- 

 matozoa enter the archegonium as a very peculiar twisting motion, due 

 to the action of the mucus or protoplasm of the germ-cell. He has 

 seen a large number of spermatozoa enter a single cell, forming a kind 

 of chain. 



In describing these curious bodies, of the connection of which with 

 the vegetable kingdom there is no room for doubt, one is irresistibly 

 reminded of these lowly forms of animal life known as Amoeba and 

 Gromia, consisting apparently of shapeless masses of protoplasm pos- 

 sessing indeed far more restricted powers of locomotion than the zoo- 

 spores and spermatozoa, their faculties in this respect being confined to 

 the protrusion and retractation of arms or pseudopodia, by means of 

 which a slow movement is effected. If the possession of consciousness 

 and of a voluntary control over the movements of the body belongs to 

 the animal kingdom even to its lowest forms, it is difficult to frame any 

 cogent reason for denying these faculties to the vegetable organisms 

 which we have been considering. A very interesting problem also 

 presents itself for solution in the almost perfect identity of constitution 

 between these lowest forms of animals and the protoplasmic elements 

 in the constitution of more highly-organized forms. If the Amcebce 

 and Gromice are admitted to be distinct individual animals, the same 

 line of reasoning would almost compel us to admit to the same rank 

 the white corpuscles of the blood of mammalia, which present almost 

 the same characters and possess the same power of protrusion and re- 

 tractation of a portion of their substance. 



The instances above cited illustrate the faculty of spontaneous mo- 

 tion possessed by detached portions of protoplasm endowed with the 

 power of forming themselves into new individuals. This phenomenon 

 appears, however, to be but a form of the property possessed by all 

 protoplasm, of constant motion in some form or other. The circulation 

 of the protoplasmic mucous fluid within the cells of plants is one of 

 the most beautiful phenomena of vegetable life revealed by the micro- 

 scope, and one of which the explanations at present offered appear 

 quite inadequate. A favorite object for exhibiting this circulation or 

 rotation is formed by the jointed hairs which cover the stamens of the 

 Virginian spider-wort {Trades cant ia Virginica). The movement is 

 rendered visible by the presence, in the otherwise colorless fluid, of 

 minute opaque granules of chlorophyll or other coloring-matter; and 

 is observable with great ease in the semi-transparent tissue of certain 

 water-plants, as Ghara, or the Valisneria commonly grown in fresh- 

 water aquariums. It consists of a slow movement of the protoplasmic 

 fluid up one side of the cell, across the ends, and down the other side ; 

 not perpendicularly, but in an oblique or spiral course. The subject 

 has been carefully investigated by three French physiologists, M3I. 



