108 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



Mr. H. J. Carter in 1856/ as having occurred in the 

 cells of Spirogyra crassa, a large species of fresh- 

 water alga. " Under certain circumstances," he says, 

 "the cell of Spirogyra apparently dies, the chloro- 

 phyl becomes yellow, and the protoplasm, leaving 

 its natural position, divides up into portions of 

 different sizes, each of which encloses more or less 

 of the chlorophyl ; these portions travel about the 

 cell under a rhizopodous form, the chlorophyl within 

 them turns brown, the portions of protoplasm then 

 become actinophorous, then more radiated, and finally 

 assume the figure of Actinophrys. The radii are now 

 withdrawn, while the pellicle in which they were 

 encased is retracted and hardened into setae with the 

 rest of the pellicle, which now becomes a lifeless 

 transparent cyst ; another more delicate cyst is 

 secreted within this, and the remains of the proto- 

 plasm within all having separated itself from the 

 chlorophyl, divides up into a group of monociliated 

 monads, which sooner or later find their way through 

 cysts into the cell of the Spirogyra ; while the latter 

 by this time having passed far into dissolution (not 

 putrefactive) they thus easily escape into the water. 

 Putrefactive decomposition at the commencement 

 destroys this process altogether. 



"At first it did not appear plain why the portions 

 of protoplasm enclosed the chlorophyl, but after- 

 wards it was found that this was for the purpose of 

 abstracting the starch which accompanies the latter, 

 since in some cases where the grains of starch were 



> "On the Change of Vegetable Protoplasm into Actinoplirys," by 

 IL J. Carter, in Annals of Natural History (1857), vol. xix. p. 259. 



