130 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



vations, in which he remarks, that '* as the phenomena 

 in question appear to contradict certain principles 

 admitted into the reigning systems, we often prefer 

 rather to deny the conclusions of candid and ex- 

 perienced observers than to receive what has hitherto 

 been regarded as untenable by generally admitted au- 

 thority. In this situation are placet! all observations 

 upon the transition or metamorphosis of vegetable life 

 (characterized by immobility) into animal life (cha- 

 racterized by mobility) ; — the moment when a being, 

 arrived at the period of its existence, continues itself, 

 as it were, by a new creation, and the animated em- 

 bryo developes itself into a motionless vegetable*." 

 Agardh, in his account of another allied family 

 {Ocillatorice), has even given figures, first of the 

 plant, and then of the animalcules into which its 

 filaments are converted f, which induced Bory St. 

 Vincent to remark sarcastically, that '* all nature 

 appears, to the Professor of Lund, to be nothing but 

 confervse travestied. |'' 



Passing over what has been published on this 

 strange doctrine by Vaucher, Girod-Chantrans, 

 Treviranus, Cams, and others, we shall only stop to 

 mention the more recent observations of Francis 

 Unger. The plant he selected was the Conferva 

 dilatata /3 of Roth. *' Within the space of one hour," 

 says he, " I succeeded in tracing, not only the dimi- 

 nution of vitality and death of the animalcules, but 

 also the subsequent development of the dead animals 

 into germinating plants, in such a manner as to 

 establish the truth of the fact." He adds with great 

 simplicity, " I could scarcely believe my own eyes §." 

 Like Agardh, he has given figures of these miracu- 



* Quoted in ' Annales des Sciences Naturelles' for 1828. 

 f Agardh, Icones A)g. ined. i. 10. 

 I Diet. Classique d'Hist. Nat., x. 469. 

 ^ Annales des Sciences Nat , 1828. 



