PEOFESSOE W. C. WILLIAMSON ON VOL VOX GLOBATOE. 339 



many points. We have no trace of an oral orifice, or an 

 internal digestive cavity ; neither has it the compensating 

 power of investing the food from which it obtains its nutri- 

 ment, as we see to be the case with the Am<Bb{Bf in which 

 the possession of this power enables the outer skin to serve 

 the purpose of an absorbent system. It can obviously ob- 

 tain no nourishment, excepting what exists in a state of 

 solution in the water — the latter being apparently absorbed 

 by a process of endosmose. This, as already pointed out, 

 is the common condition of the early forms of vegetable life. 

 From this close approximation to vegetable types, and the 

 absence of every thing that appears peculiarly characteristic 

 of animal organisms, I am led to conclude that the Volvox 

 is a true plant. If this conclusion be a correct one, it be- 

 comes increasingly probable that Euglena, and a number 

 of allied ciliated objects, regarded by Ehrenberg and others 

 as polygastric animalcules, will also be found to belong to 

 the same division of the organic world. 



