170 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



question was no other than the harmless Botrydiuvi 

 granulatum (Fig. 29).^ He says that, on reading over 

 the description by Dr. Bartlett, " one sees how fairly it 

 tallies with the known characters of the Hydrogastrum 

 (otherwise Botrydinui), but it is undoubtedly sur- 

 prising how he, and the American observers of the 

 Society referred to, failed to perceive the identity 

 of the organism in question — one which finds a place 

 in so many botanical text-books, both by figure and 

 description, as well as on lecture diagrams, as a note- 

 worthy example of a single-celled independent plant, 

 and at the same time endowed with the power to 

 become copiously ramified, so to speak, root, stem, 

 and aerial portion combined in one cell only. I 

 venture to think it hardly less surprising to find this 

 seemingly so passive and inert little chlorophyllaccous 

 alga, met with in suitable situations all over Europe, 

 gravely tried, and found guilty, on so slender evidence, 

 of being the atrocious 'cause of the ague.' " 



The "ague-plant," in so far as Botrydiuni granu- 

 latum is concerned, may therefore be regarded as a 

 romance of the past, but its history will remain as 

 a lesson to those who, upon suspicion only, and with- 

 out more than the slightest circumstantial evidence, 

 would gravely bring a charge of complicity in disease 

 against a harmless and innocent little organism. That 

 this little alga favours such swampy localities as those 

 in which ague usually abounds may be granted, but 

 that by no means proves an association of the sup- 

 posed cause and effect. 



The more feasible interpretation of the probable 

 • Crevilka (1874), vol. ii. p. 166. 



