ALGJE. 



151 



observations, it is necessary that the life-history of 

 Chlamydococcus should be borne in mind, from which 

 it will be evident that all these organisms, instead of 

 being distinct, are but separate conditions of the one 

 species, which is Chlamydococcus nivalis (Fig. 26). 



It is considered not only possible, but very probable, 

 that the red-snow plant is not specifically distinct 

 from the organism long known 

 as Protococcus pliivialis, and 

 hence that the life-history of the 

 one is the same at that of the 

 other. The details we possess 

 of the latter are more explicit 

 than of the former, and from 

 these we may present an outline 

 of their peculiar characteristics. 

 Normally full-grown cells of this 

 organism, which sometimes re- 

 sembles a plant and sometimes an animal, are glo- 

 bose, with a thick tough cell membrane, and opaque 

 granular contents, sometimes of a brown and some- 

 times of a bright red colour. Within the cell contents 

 lie hidden starch granules and a nucleus. There also 

 appears to exist in the centre of the cell a large 

 nuclear vesicle, so covered by the rest of the cell 

 contents as to be indistinctly perceived. When these 

 resting globular cells are placed in water, they give 

 birth to four gonidia-like swarming cells. Even before 

 the commencement of division of the contents, a 

 change begins in the colour of the parent cell, the red 

 colour retreating from the circumference, and a yellow 

 (or greenish) border forming round the deep-red central 



Fig. 26. — Red Snow, successive 

 stages of development. 



