2S2 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



some disappear, some break up and disperse within 

 the volvox ; some undergo a process of subdivision, 

 producing a group of from two to forty green drops, 

 arranged so that their apices, with cilia, point ex- 

 ternally ; while others enlarge to two or three times 

 their natural size, having many nuclei within, and 

 variously coloured. When this cell, probably by the 

 solution of the outer mucilaginous coat, becomes free, 

 it also possesses the power of moving precisely as does 

 a true Ania:ba. And yet the suggestion that they are 

 animal cannot be entertained ; but the explanation is 

 oft'ered, that the protoplasmic contents, when deprived 

 of their confining envelope of cellulose, possess, in 

 common with sarcode, under certain circumstances, 

 a power of spontaneous motion in the manner of an 

 A m<rba. 



In preparation for the final stage, the reproductive 

 phase of the Myxogaster, each individual acquires a 

 peridium, or outer envelope, and the contents lose 

 gradually their mucilaginous character, and become 

 differentiated into threads, which constitute the capil- 

 litium., and a pulverulent mass consisting of globose 

 spores. Nothing in this stage calls for particular 

 comment ; it is almost analogous, on a small scale, to 

 the peridium, capillitium, and spores of a Lycoperdon, 

 or some other of the Gastroinycetes, so that no one 

 has ever attempted to deny or explain away its 

 fungoid character. In its reproductive phase the 

 Myxogaster is a fungus of the Gastroinycetes, or puff- 

 ball type. 



It is important in this connection to note an obser- 

 vation made by Meneghini, when advocating the 



