104 DUBLIN UNIVERSITY 



leaving only comparatively a very small quantity within the ruptured 

 frond, the (as yet) contained granules flitting about quite like the few 

 terminal ones in the normal state. Very little actual change of position, 

 however, was effected on the part of any of these granules, except by 

 a few which happened to lie at one side of the frond. These were 

 (as it appeared to me) guided along by their happening to be in this 

 position, and effected sometimes a somewhat considerable onward mo- 

 tion. The whole thing struck me as forcibly resembling the terminal 

 space, enlarged as it were by the withdrawal of the great mass of the 

 endochrome, and only leaving behind enough of the disintegrated cell- 

 contents to furnish a somewhat evenly distributed crowd of granules 

 moving, their only definite boundary being now the external wall of the 

 frond, and not, as in the normal state, a little cavity or chamber, exca- 

 vated, as it were, out of the endochrome. A very similar movement 

 occurred amongst the pressed-out granules, but probably, on the whole, 

 not so active as that noticed in the still contained granules. I apprehend 

 this phenomenon must have been due to " molecular motion," for the 

 current even within the frond must have been, of course, wholly destroyed, 

 which, even did it exist, would be hardly likely to produce their curious 

 dancing motion ; and if the pressed-out contents exhibit motion in obe- 

 dience to that curious law, I should imagine that the granules normally 

 disassociated from the endochrome within the living frond cannot be 

 exempt from it, and which may account in some measure, in conjunction 

 with the circulation possibly, for the remarkable movement noticed in the 

 Closteria. The " swarming motion" before alluded to as occurring in 

 many species may be a movement of a similar nature ; it is, however, 

 more vigorous and active than that which is noticeable in the pressed- 

 out cell- contents in the ordinary condition. I shall presently advert to 

 this phenomenon of moving granules as displayed by my new form. The 

 foregoing are the principal arguments for the animal nature of these 

 organisms, which clearly do not hold good. On the other hand, the 

 arguments in favour of their vegetable nature are more numerous and 

 convincing. The cell-wall composed of cellulose, the presence of starch, 

 the multiplication of the cells by transverse division in a manner ana- 

 logous to other AlgaB, the reproduction by conjugation and formation of 

 sporangia similar to other Confervoids, their herbaceous green colour 

 owing to the presence of chlorophyll, the rotation of their cell-contents, 

 &c, all combine in proving their vegetable nature. Nor are special 



