392 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



In addition to the presence of these peculiar tubu- 

 lating cells in Spirogyra, Mr. Carter frequently found 

 many Astasia either in the same or in different fila- 

 ments, and owing to the supposed absence of other 

 means of accounting for the presence of these organ- 

 isms, he hazarded the not very convincing guess that 

 they may have been derived from some of the liberated 

 germs of the tubulating cells. The important point, how- 

 ever, is Mr. Carter's statement of the fact that *- young 

 Astasia are also developed within the cells of Spirogyra 

 to a great extent." He says they at first exhibit almost 

 as much polymorphism as an Amoeba, though after a 

 time they assume the form and exhibit the movements 

 peculiar to Astasia. 



On other occasions Mr. Carter has seen peculiar 

 filaments appear within the closed cells of Spirogyra. 

 There is, he says, ^frequently a development of long, 

 slender, colourless filaments, which have a writhing 

 movement like that of an injured earth-worm,' and 

 some of the filaments present a faint appearance of 

 segmentation. Mr. Carter also states that such bodies 

 may be met with in Desmids. He says : — ^ The same 

 kind of filaments occasionally appear in Closterium ace- 

 rosum when its contents are passing into dissolution, 

 but long before the chlorophyll has changed colour or 



(Pritchard, pi. xxviii. figs. 65-71) ; whilst Claparede and Lachmann have 

 seen the same kind of organisms appear within certain non- encysted 

 Infusoria (' Ann. of Nat. Hist.' vol. xix. p. 238). The subsequent fate of 

 the liberated particles (germs) is very uncertain and needs further 

 investigation. 



