30 M. Miiller on the Development of the Lycopodiace?e. 



iodine I could not detect any ring in their interior, and this 

 is the first character of a hollow globule. But there can be no 

 question at all of a cellular tissue here, and this can only be a 

 misconception. A fluid which appears to be oily accompanies 

 the granules at a later period, and this will be more fully spoken 

 of hereafter. 



§3. The process of Germination. 



When the spore escapes from the sporangium and falls upon 

 a suitable soil (which must be somewhat moist), it swells out by 

 absorbing water into its interior. If we examine under the mi- 

 croscope a spore in this stage, on crushing or cutting it the gra- 

 nular matter contained is readily spread through the water upon 

 the slip of glass, and is evidently accompanied by the apparently 

 oily fluid already mentioned. This is also scattered through the 

 water in the form of drops or globules of oil. To satisfy myself 

 whether I had to do here with actual globules of oil which have 

 but too frequently been described by various inquirers as forming 

 part of the cell-contents, or with some other substance, I next 

 endeavoured to test them with very strong solution of iodine. 

 By the application of this, the mass became brown, firmer and 

 more tenacious. I then added sether, and the globules were not 

 dissolved, as must have been the case if they really consisted of a 

 fatty matter. The mass remained tough. Moreover it still re- 

 mained so when I applied hydrochloric acid, and distinctly 

 showed by this that I had to do with a totally different sub- 

 stance. It is already present before the formation of cells begins 

 and is the material for that operation, therefore I do not doubt 

 in the least that it is the same mass which H. Mohl has briefly 

 characterized under the very expressive name of Protoplasma in 

 the ^Botanische Zeitung' (vol. iv. p. 75*). 



If the process of cell-formation has already begun, when we 

 carefully examine a spore, we find that as soon as we act upon it 

 with iodine, some free cells always show themselves among the 

 remainder of the cell- contents and the protoplasma, and are 

 always coloured blue. They appear more or less round, com- 

 pressed on two sides or angular, most of them however in the 

 laterally compressed form. In the centre occurs a roundish, 

 smaller nucleus inclosed in a coagulated mass, but in such a 

 manner that it always appears round. Other layers, surrounding 

 this, now present themselves, which are concentrically situated 

 around the nucleus, and are likewise coloured blue. A gelati- 

 nous, coagulated and thicker layer envelopes the whole in the 

 form of a cell, which therefore wholly identifies itself with an 



* Annals Nat. Hist. vol. xviii. p. 3. 



