260 Royal Asiatic Society ; — 



which had led to the view above mentioned, the author had thought 

 proper to premise a short account of analogous transformations in 

 ForticeUa and Euglena. In confirming most of what Stein had 

 stated, respecting tlie passage of Vorticella into Acineta, he observed, 

 that he had never seen the young of the latter assume any other form 

 than that of Acineta, but he had witnessed AmoehcB in the act of 

 throwing oif living VorticellcB. The passage of the contents of 

 Euglena (which organism was much more allied to the vegetable 

 than the animal kingdom) into Rhizopods was a common occurrence, 

 and so nearly resembling that which takes place in Spirogyra, that 

 it formed a good transitional link, perhaps, between the passage of 

 Vorticella on the Infusorial, and the contents of the cell of Spiroyyi'a, 

 on the Alga side, into Rhizopodous animalculse. 



It was in the cell of Sjpirogyra crassa (Kg.) (the largest perhaps 

 of the genus), however, that Mr. Carter had latterly been watching 

 these transformations, and it was to these more particularly that he 

 wished to direct attention. The process was simply this : — 



Under certain circumstances the cell of Spirogyra apparently dies, 

 the chlorophyll becomes yellow, and the protoplasm leaving its natural 

 position divides up into portions of different sizes, each of which 

 encloses more or less of the chlorophyll ; these portions travel about 

 the cell under a Rhizopodous form, the chlorophyll within them turns 

 brown, the portions of protoplasm then become Actinophorous, then 

 more radiated, and finally assume the figure of Actinophrys. The 

 radii are now withdrawn, while the pellicula in which they were 

 encased is retracted and hardened into setae with the rest of the pel- 

 licula, which now becomes a lifeless transparent cyst ; another more 

 delicate cyst is secreted within this, and the remains of the protoplasm 

 within all having separated itself from the chlorophyll, divides up 

 into a group of monociliated Monads, which sooner or later find their 

 way through the cysts into the cell of the Spirogyra ; while the latter 

 by this time having passed far into dissolution (not putrefactive), they 

 thus easily escape into the water. Putrefactive decomposition at the 

 commencement destroys this process altogether. 



At first it did not appear plain why the portions of protoplasm 

 enclosed the chlorophyll, but afterwards it was found that this was 

 for the purpose of abstracting the starch which accompanies the latter, 

 since in some cases where the grains of starch were numerous the 

 chlorophyll was not included. 



This was the process when the cells of Spirogyra were not pregnant 

 with starch, as they are just before conjugating. When these changes 

 took place at this period they were somewhat different, insomuch as 

 the whole of the contents of the two conjugating cells become united 

 into one mass, and having assumed a globular form, remain in this 

 state until the chlorophyll has become more or less brown. After 

 this the protoplasm reappears at the circumference of the mass in two 

 forms, viz. in portions which leave the mass altogether after the 

 manner of Rhizopods, and in the form of tubular extensions which 

 maintain their connexion with the mass throughout. In both in- 

 stances the protoplasm is without chlorophyll, but charged with oil- 



