i8o Transactions of the [Sess. 



colour was found not to be of a uniform green hue, but to be 

 modified by the presence of hyaline protoplasm. The nucleus was 

 observed by use of hsematoxylin as a staining agent. On the other 

 hand, Professor E. Eay Lankester has found, by use of picro-carmine, 

 that no nucleus is determinable. 



(6) The green bodies survive isolation. 



(c) Though isolated, they develop starch in sunlight. With 

 reference to this. Professor Lankester points out that it need not 

 imply the existence of symbiotic Algae, as it would only prove that " a 

 bit of protoplasm, with its associated envelope or cap of green sub- 

 stance, can retain its vital activity, just as a piece of an Amoeba can ; " 

 and again, Dr Brandt " does not state that he observed starch grains 

 in association with the chlorophyll corpuscles, when observed in fresh 

 living cells of Spongilla (or of Hydra)." Moreover, " by removing the 

 chlorophyll corpuscles from the mass of surrounding protoplasm, Dr 

 Karl Brandt has found a method by which the jiroduct of the activity 

 of the chlorophyll corpuscle may be, as it were, forced to remain in the 

 corpuscle, there being no surrounding protoplasm to take it up and 

 operate further upon it. Hence, possibly enough, we get a deposit of 

 starch grains in the isolated corpuscle, which would never occur in 

 the normal condition, since the product of assimilation is in that 

 condition rapidly diffused, and so removed from the chlorophyll 

 corpuscle " — it may be, to appear as amylum in vacuoles in the ad- 

 joining protoplasm of the animal cell. — (^ Quart. Jour. Micr. Sci.,' 

 April 1882.) 



(d) Specimens of green bodies from Hydra were taken in and 

 retained by Paramoecium, whereas the green bodies of Spongilla Avere 

 digested or expelled by Infusors. To this Lankester replies that, 

 " had Dr Brandt's view been confirmed, the green corpuscle ought to 

 have multiplied in its new host ; " and even then, this need not indi- 

 cate any independent nature : they may still be but " parts of the 

 protoplasm of the cell in which they are normally found." 



(e) The green bodies, on the supposition of their morphological 

 independence, have received from Dr Brandt specific names : those 

 from Hydra are called Zoochlorella conductrix, and those from 

 Spongilla, Zoochlorella parasitica. The facts, however, which are 

 referred to by Professor Lankester — namely, (1) that a cellulose wall 

 is absent from the green corpuscles ; (2) that their form is varied ; 

 and (3) that their green colour may be absent when an irregular 

 angular corpuscle is seen — militate against their being regarded as 

 independent organisms. 



(/) Dr Brandt, finally, has observed — (1) that Eadiolarian colonies 

 do not digest foreign bodies when Alga3 {i.e., yellow cells) are present, 

 as he succeeded in keeping them alive in filtered sea-water ; and (2) 

 that Spongilla containing green bodies lived in filtered water, but 

 died when removed into a half-darkened spot, and he therefore con- 



