THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 383 



come more or less encysted, and at the same time 

 develop rays from their exterior. -Nicolet adds: — 

 ' The different phases of their development has given 

 rise to the establishment of many species. I will cite, 

 amongst others, under the Actinophrys form, Actlnopkrys 

 viridis (Ehr.), Actinophrys digit at a (Duj.), 2ind Actinophrys 

 dijformis of the same author j and under the Amoeba 

 form — Amoeha inflata (Duj.), Am(£ba diffluens (Ehr.), 

 Amceha hrachiata (Duj.), Amoeba radiosa (Ehr.), and 

 Amoeba princeps (Ehr.), species considered to be distinct 

 by all authors, but which disappear and appear again 

 in one and the same individual during observations 

 conducted for a single month.' 



Again, according to Nicolet, when a portion of an 

 aquatic plant such as Chara has been well cleaned with 

 a soft brush — so as to detach all foreign matters from 

 its surface — and is placed in a vessel with some 

 pure water, a variable number of minute transparent 

 filaments may be seen to grow from its surface. The 

 time at which these appear varies in different cases ; 

 the rapidity of their formation being in direct pro- 

 portion to the lowness of vitality of the plant, and 

 also, within certain limits, to the daily atmospheric 

 temperature. They generally make their appearance 

 on its surface as little transparent, hemispherical 

 projections about 2-5V0 in diarneter, which appear 

 to contain an extravasation of some of the liquid 

 contents of the plant itself. These projections grow 

 very rapidly into transparent filaments — even in the 



