1 90 Nees vo?i Esenheck's Florae GermaniccE Genera. 



tains, is their spawn. At first, it would appear, the granules 

 of all of them are separate and free, and move about in a 

 very lively manner, but after a time they approximate and 

 unite each after its own nature, and, by their aggregation or 

 successive evolution, produce forms so similar to those of 

 confervoid plants that their real nature has been hidden until 

 these times. 



Of the nature of these productions we have now then 

 tliree opinions: the first, that they are vegetable; the se- 

 cond, that they possess successively an animal and a ve- 

 getable existence (see our I. 305.) ; and the third is that 

 before us, and which believes them to be entirely animal. 

 Were it necessary to choose between them, we confess our 

 partiality to the eldest born ; and, admitting all that has been 

 said of the mobility and contractility of these Nemazoaires as 

 true, we may still hesitate to admit that they are sufficient for 

 the annihilation of this opinion; the more especially when 

 we remember the observations of R. Brown, which prove 

 that the granules or corpuscles of even unorganised matter 

 possess all these apparently voluntary motions, both loco- 

 motive and rotatory. But neither leisure nor space permit us 

 to enter upon this discussion, nor yet into the question how 

 far the observations made on these granules support the specu- 

 lations which have been anew broached on the doctrine of 

 spontaneous generation. 



For information relative to the so called Nemazoaires, 

 the English reader may consult our I. 305., et seq. ; Gre- 

 ville's Flora Edinensis, p. 321. ; Greville's Cryptogamic Flora ; 

 Hooker's EnglisJi Flora (vol. v.) ; Lindley's Introduction to 

 the Natural System of Botany (p. 339.); and the Rev. Mr. 

 Berkeley's Minute Aflgce, published as a Supplement to the 

 English Botany, — N. 



Nees Ton Esenheck, Th. Fr, Lud., Phil, et Med. Dre., &c. : 

 Genera Plantarum Florae Germanicae Iconibus et Descrip- 

 tionibus illustrata. Fasciculus ii. Bonnae, Henry and 

 Cohen. 



Of this excellent work we have indicated the scope, in 

 noticing the first fasciculus, in VI. 439. The second fasci- 

 culus is as good as the first, and describes and illustrates the 

 characters of the following genera : — Typha, »Sparganium, 

 ^'corus, Calla, ^Vum, Jiincus, Luzula, Triglochin, Scheuch- 

 zer/«, Feratrum, Tofieldz«, ^Smilax, i^uscus, Asparagus, Con^ 

 vallaria, Polygonatum, Maianthemum Wigg^ Stretopus ikf/c^., 

 Paris, Tamus. 



