376 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



about by means of cilia which sometimes existed singly 

 and sometimes in tiie form of a circlet. Although 

 Dr. Pringsheim was disposed to look upon these bodies 

 as anomalous propagative spores belonging to the plant 

 itself, and destined to reproduce it, he came to such 

 a view principally because of his certainty as to their 

 mode of origin. Pie says: — *^That they are foreign 

 structures, not belonging to the Splrogyr^^ would be an 

 altogether inadmissible hypothesis_, smce they are formed 

 In the interlcr of the closed f lament cells of the Spirogyrse, 

 directly from their contents.' Dr. Pringsheim had seen 

 bodies originating after a similar fashion within the 

 resting spore of (Edogo7imn vesicatum^ and within the 

 filament cells of Cladophora fracta and of Nltella syncarpa^ 

 and as he had not seen the further developmental modi- 

 fications of these newly-produced organisms, the view 

 which he adopted seemed the only one open to him at 

 the time. Now, however, there cannot be much doubt 

 as to the relationship which exists between these bodies 

 and the organisms whose evolution Mr. H. J. Carter 

 has watched, within the filament cells of weeds be- 

 longing to the same genera, and which Dr. Braxton 

 Hicks 1 has seen originating within the elongated alga- 

 like cells of which moss-radicles are composed. 



In order to procure such alga-like moss-roots in a 

 suitable condition, it is only necessary to float por- 

 tions of any of the common mosses on a glass of water, 

 which should then be kept in the shade. Radicles of 



^ 'Journal of Microsc. Sc' 1862, p. 97. 



