APPENDIX D, Ixv 



covered by them unless usurped by other plants. They are 

 perfectly capable of independe7it existence, whether they have 

 arisen from a spore, leaf, stem, or root, when separated from 

 their source; and hence the erroneous impression of their 

 Algal origin. This is the less to be wondered at, if we 

 notice the growth of one when placed in water. Under these 

 circumstances, the activity of its development and linear 

 growth is wonderfully increased, if not exposed to too much 

 light; so that in a week it can multiply itself 200 or 300 

 times, while the original type has been nearly preserved, the 

 slight alteration being in the elongations of the cells and a 

 decrease of their breadth.' Sometimes the filaments which 

 have grown in water are branched so as closely to resemble 

 the Alga known as Draparnaldia tenuis ; and on one 

 occasion Dr. Hicks actually found a very fine growth of 

 D. tenuis in a glass of water into which he had previously 

 placed a Moss. Upon this he remarks : — ' This is a very 

 unusual place to find this plant; and though I could not 

 absolutely trace it to a Moss, yet coupled with the fact that 

 similar growths can be so originated, and also that the 

 radicles^ produce elongated cilia-like^ cells, it seems to 

 be a point worthy of further research, whether or not that 

 genus, or at any rate the above species, may or may not 

 have its origin from Moss in some one of its phases. Nor 

 should this, in our present state of knowledge, be considered 

 a wild speculation, for we know nothing of the agamic 

 growth of Draparnaldia ; we have nothing to militate against 

 its being one mode of vegetative growth of a form considered 

 altogether distinct ; and this is not more extravagant than the 

 known fact that these confer void filaments can produce a7id 



^ Every transition may be traced between the true radicles of the Moss 

 and the confervoid filaments. Each is capable of giving rise to the 

 other. 



"^ Strongly resembling the so-called ciliae of the Draparnaldice. 



VOL. II. e 



