96 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



Sph(zroplecB. But it appears to me that the facts thus 

 disclosed, so far from adding weight to the arguments 

 of those who would regard the Conjugatae as animal 

 productions, rightly interpreted, tend merely to prove 

 the existence of sexes in the ConferVcE, as have 

 been proved by Vaucher to exist in the genus 

 Vaucheria, a class of productions nearly related to the 

 Confervae ; and that thus an analogy is established 

 between the lower Confervce and the higher phane- 

 rogamic plants, between which and some of the 

 lower animal tribes a further analogy may be traced. 



For my own part, I trouble my- 

 self but little with the disputes about 

 the boundaries of the two great 

 divisions of the organized world, 

 which forcibly remind me of the 

 search, carried on by ancient philo- 

 Fio. X7^zoo.spores. sophcrs for days and years, after 

 the much-desired but imaginary 

 and poetical philosopher's stone endowed with such 

 all-pervading influence, or the equally fruitless inquiry 

 after perpetual motion, or any of the other wild 

 chimeras to which the minds of men have from time 

 to time been given. It is my belief that no such 

 rigid boundary exists, for in living nature there 

 are no abrupt unsightly chasms ; all is uniformity, 

 order, design, and transition. I would now mention 

 one fact which would appear to show that in the 

 composition of the Confervae there is something of 

 the animal. When a number of Confervae have been 

 crowded together in a bottle for two or three days, 

 they emit on their removal what appears to my power 



