112 ROiMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



but by the enclosure of crude material from which 



the nutriment is abstracted by a digestive process, 



and the refuse finally discharged. 



Lastly, whenever a mass of filaments of Spirogyra 



underwent these transformations, the latter were 

 invariably followed by a numerous 

 development of ActinopJnys sol of all 

 sizes, to the exclusion at first of al- 

 most all other animalcules ; and, 

 coupling this with the undistinguish- 

 able form from Actinophrys sol, as- 

 sumed by the monads developed by 

 these transformations, he saw no 

 other more reasonable conclusion to 

 come to, than that they were one and 

 the same, and therefore that one 

 source at least of A ctinopJirys sol was 

 the protoplasm of Spirogyra. 



fiG. 21. — Actinofhrys 

 sol. 



Water Blossom. 



Under this name a peculiar phenomena is known 

 in Germany, which in this country has been called 

 the " breaking of the meres." Professor Cohn ob- 

 serves that, though the appearance has often been 

 observed and examined, very little is known of the 

 causes from which it originates. Within the course 

 of a few hours an alga so densely covers a vast 

 extent of the surface of the water that it imparts 

 to it a distinct colour, green, brown, or red ; sooner 

 or later it disappears, cither periodically or altogether. 

 The only reason for this that can be assigned, apart 

 from the extraordinary increase of the respective 



