8 



being of the following nature. The "nucleus" in the 

 primary spore cell consists, as we have said, of a minute 

 fibrous bundle. This unravels itself, so to speak, and its 

 component fibres split up and arrange themselves into two 

 p^roups. These two groups separate themselves, and 

 between them, by some inconceivably subtle influence a 

 thin wall is formed, dividing the cell into practically two, 

 each one now with a nucleus of its own. The second cell 

 thus engendered increases in size, and again the nucleus 

 divides, another dividing wall is created, and so on, until a 

 little chain of cells is seen with the spore husk at one end. 



No building can continue without building materials; 

 and it will soon be seen that from the tiny chain of cells, 

 minute hair-like rootlets have protruded, anchoring the 

 incipient " prothallus " to the soil, and providing it with 

 material from that soil in the shape of water and earthy 

 salts, while the green portion is absorbing the carbonic 

 gas of the air as further material for construction. Under 

 the influence of light, from the issue of the first cell from 

 the spore husk, there has been engendered within the cell 

 walls a number of tiny green bodies, known as " chloro- 

 phyll," or leaf green, and it is this chlorophyll which alone 

 in this world is capable of being so influenced by light that 

 it can break up the earthy salts of the sap provided by 

 the roots, decompose the carbonic acid gas into its com- 

 ponents of carbon and oxygen, throw off the oxygen, and 

 utilise the solid carbon to form starchy and innumerable 

 other substances for constructive or other purposes. 



With the aid, therefore, of this marvellous substance, 

 the cell-work now goes actively on, and the designing 

 work ordained by the parental influences which have been 

 incorporated from the first in the " nucleus" of the spore 

 cell, now commences to be apparent. The mere chain 

 formation of the first cells is abandoned in favour of 

 lateral multiplication on definite lines, until presently we 

 see a heart-shaped green scale, perhaps a quarter of an 

 inch across when completed. We may now loosen such a 



