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foot of walls, in ominous patches, and has often been taken for blood spilt there ; 

 and it is some kind of Algal, called Protococcus nivalis, that colours the red snow 

 on the Alps seen occasionally by travellers. The Hamatococcus is another 

 cellular Algal that is of a sanguine hue ; and the various lakes and pools that 

 assume deep green, red, and other colours, owe their different tints to Alga? 

 that come to maturity under circumstances of high temperature. At such times 

 these various cellular structures seem to increase in an astonishing manner. All 

 these cellular forms require careful investigation, and their appearance and 

 changes should be recorded, for, as remarked by Griffiths and Henfrey (Micro- 

 graph. Diet.), the genus Protococcus is " at present very imperfectly known, 

 since, without a tolerably complete history of the development of their forms, 

 it is impossible to distinguish the true species of Protococcus from the young 

 states of the more complicated Palmellacece. " 



I cannot on the present occasion go farther into this subject, curious as 

 it is, but it may excite the attention of the members of the Field Clubs to 

 carefully look out for the appearances that arise in Nature under changed circum- 

 stances. For though, as is evident, destructive influences may, in the order of 

 things, be influenced by oscillating meteorological cycles which we cannot fully 

 understand, and destroy a little world of minute creatures in their limited range, 

 yet renovation follows so closely upon the heels of ebbing life that a void place 

 seldom long remains, and other organisms appear to take advantage of the 

 opportunity that presents itself for their enjoyment of active vitality. A 

 drought may extinguish animal and vegetable life in particular places, but there 

 is at length a providential compensation ; showers return to gladden the soil, 

 springs and pools are renovated, and every drop of rain is loaded with the germs 

 of existences that quickly give life again to the spots that had been only for a 

 brief space left arid and bare. Those peculiar plants which the drought had 

 brought into transient existence then entirely disappear from view. Destruction 

 and renovation are perpetually at work in the wide domain of Nature, and the 

 rolling year shows continual change as an evidence of Divine and providential 

 ordination. No animal or vegetable life is indestructible, but on the ashes of 

 destruction renewed vitality ajipears in other organisms that take their turn 

 within the cycle of existence. Death, after a longer or shorter time, invariably 

 succeeds to life, and perhaps even with reference to an Almighty power, it 

 may be impossible to carry on such an extended system of vitality as we see 

 around us on any other foundation. 



All forms that perish other forms supply. 

 By turns they catch the vital breath, and die ; 

 Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne. 

 They rise, they break, and to that sea return. 



We perceive that meteorological causes, the origin or continuance of which is 



altogether inscrutable, involves an enormous destruction of life— both animal 



and vegetable ; but this does not go on indefinitely, or without limit ; there 



comes a change, and the face of Nature is again renewed. Some existencies, 



that could appear only under an exceptional state of things, pass away to await 



