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this instance, these animalcules might probably break up 

 surrounding fibrils for the ulterior processes of organization. 

 The radicles of the sow thistle and onion were severally found to 

 exhibit a beautiful dinesis, especially the latter, where the reti- 

 formed cells, spiral tubules, dots of light and darker shaded 

 granules of chlerophyl, with other globules, formed one of the 

 most lovely pictures he had ever witnessed. 



Life, beauty, elegance, and work were simultaneously 

 -displayed on the field. The day after this examination, chlorophyl 

 gobules in abundance were formed at the extremity of the tap 

 root of the thistle, measuring five inches from end to the throat 

 of the stem. 



The value of distinguishing these primitive movements by 

 the special term " dinesis " is this, that whereas in the ordinary 

 progression of latex, whether Avithin the laticeferous vessels or in 

 those of the liber, the flow was regular, and uninterrupted from 

 the apex of the whole plant to the base, whether they examine a . 

 leaf or a stem ■ and so long as this movement was uninfluenced 

 by injury to the vessels there Avas no appearance of a check to this 

 osciliation. The reason Avas obvious. The uniformly steady 

 elimination of oxygen, the fixation of carbon, and general 

 ■exhalation of aqueous vapour, are processes over which solar heat 

 ivnd light maintain calm, equal, and unlimited power. But the 

 .case was otherwise in radical circulation. Nutriment had to be 

 sought for and selected by the spongioles ; decomposition of 

 mineral substances by effete gases Avas performed, and solutions of 

 •these bodies must b^ accomplished, excretion of used up products 

 -take place, molecules of starch and gum worked up into " raw 

 material "—all these important functions Avere simultaneously 

 going on within the cell walls of the rootlets. So thatwliilst the 

 microscopical field Avas calm for a few seconds, the eye was startled 

 with a sudden leap of the current, here and there, an increased 

 Avhirl of the whole, then a halt, and again a movement forAvard, 

 [ .accompanied ever and anon with a smart or a slight contraction 

 1-of the cell itself. These vital actions concurring occasion eddying 



