92 ZOOPHYTES. 



89. In the process of germination, above illustrated, a cellule forms 

 laterally from the apex of a longitudinal cellule {b, figure 45). This 

 new germ-cellule enlarges, until that reproductive agency, whose 

 over-accumulation started its existence, has attained its maximum 

 in the new cellule ; and, going on to accumulate from the vital 

 action within, new cellules bud out from that now formed : and so 

 cellules bud from one another, two from each preceding, till they are 

 prepared to form the sporules at the extremity. The cellules decrease 

 in size ; and if the view just expressed is correct, — that the same 

 amount of force causes the successive buddings, — the process in the 

 formation of sporules consists, in part, in the successive condensation 

 of the germinating material of the future sporule, until it is collected 

 into a space not sh the size of the ordinary cellules in the plant, 

 and a gradual concentration of its germinant powers. The final 

 cellule at last gives rise to one or more sporules : apparently the mere 

 result of continued budding, and a farther elaboration and concen- 

 tration of the germinating product. Some facts, however, seem to 

 show that the consummating change may consist in the union of a 

 final cellule, with some other which is antheridial in its nature ; and 

 after this union, the sporules bud out from the combined cellule, or 

 form by mere spontaneous fission of the same.* 



I have dwelt upon this example, not because there is any novelty 

 in this developement of successive cellules, but from its affording so 

 simple and apposite an illustration of the germinant process. The same, 

 in the opinion of the best physiologists, is the general mode of deve- 

 lopement in other plants, except that anthers intervene to afford 

 material to aid in the final elaborations. And in animals, the process 

 of growth by cellules, and the modes of developement, are quite 

 analogous. 



90. The germinating process may be illustrated by a few more 

 comparisons between plants and zoophytes. The Aulopora has been 

 described (^ 65) as sending out slender creeping shoots at base, 

 which, after reaching to a certain length, develope a polyp, from 



* The character of the sporules and their position, as observed, are shown on the last 

 plate of the Atlas : figure la, the Liagora rubriceps natural size ; b, a branch magnified 

 with the sporidia below ; c, sporidia magnified one hundred and fifty diameters ; d, part 

 of transver.se section of stem, showing the internal cellules cut across and partly disar- 

 ranged ; e, e', longitudinal cellules magnified one hundred and fifty diameters ; yj longi- 

 tudinal cellules, with the lateral branch of cellules, and the sporules at ape.x ; g, one of 

 the sporules magnified four hundred diameters. 



