THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 205 



bodies about toVo" in diameter. Even after attaining 

 this stage of development, some of them occasionally 

 underwent a process of division; and though the ma- 

 jority of them seemed to undergo no change, others, after 

 a time, gave origin to ordinary mycelial threads. 



After relating these observations, the following re- 

 marks were made : — 



^The changes which I have described represent, I 

 think^ only two extreme types of a mode of metamor- 

 phosis which is apt to take place in portions of the 

 pellicle. In the one case a certain area of the pellicle, 

 after undergoing some changes, resolves itself into a 

 number of ovoid bodies, which collectively are about 

 equal in bulk to the altered area itself; whilst, in the 

 other case, at different stages, the segments of the 

 altered area undergo a process of growth and sub- 

 division, so that, ultimately, the mass of spores which 

 results far exceeds in bulk that of the original area 

 when it began to undergo change. 



'At other times intermediate processes are met with; 

 and then fungus - spores are produced after a fashion 

 more closely resembling that which leads to the pro- 

 duction of the unicellular organisms above described. 

 The areas of change are then larger than those last 

 described and colourless throughout, whilst the pro- 

 cesses of growth and multiplication are less marked at 

 the different stages. Where fungus-spores result after 

 this fashion, the changes in the refractive index, and 

 the homogeneous appearance previously alluded to, still 



