300 On the Germination of the Spores in Spirogyra. 



Fiffs. 13 & 14. Achlya prolifera. 



Fig. 13. Sporangium of Achlya prolifera with resting spores and a number 

 of smaller cellules resembling the moving spores of Achlya, and 

 which being likewise capable of germinating are consequently 

 spores also; they have originated either directly from the eon- 

 tents of the sporangium in company with the motionless, larger, 

 round spores, or from the latter through a metamorphosis of their 

 contents. 



Fig. 14. Moving spores of Achlya prolifera undergoing constriction, 

 whereby two, equally moving, but smaller, daughter-spores are 

 produced, each of these possessing a motile thread (cilia). 



Note by the Translator. '"" 



While this translation has been passing through the press, I 

 have had an opportunity of observing these active gonidia, and 

 ascertaining with certainty the number of cilia in Spirogyra qui- 

 nina. In a detached, unconjugated joint I found sixteen bodies 

 moving gently but freely about in the cell-cavity, which had lost 

 all its original protoplasmic structures, and contained only those 

 active bodies and a number of minute granules (which from 

 the action of iodine appeared to be starch). The active bodies 

 consisted entirely of a viscid substance (protoplasm) without an 

 enveloping membrane, or any trace of nucleus, and were in most 

 cases colourless, one or two only having a greenish tinge. The 

 containing filament-joint was ^^oth of an inch in diameter, the 

 active bodies, oval in side view and circular in front view, yg^o gth 

 and xt/o 0*^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ their respective diameters. I wished to 

 keep these bodies alive in order to follow their escape and pro- 

 bable germination, but the water in the contrivance for supply- 

 ing fresh water to replace that evaporating from the slides was 

 fatal to the active bodies (perhaps from being rendered impure 

 by some fumes in the room, as it had been exposed to air some 

 days) ; at all events the movement suddenly stopped, and as T 

 saw that the bodies would soon become decomposed, I added 

 iodine to bring out the cilia more distinctly. When coloured 

 full brown, the active gonidia exhibited a pair of long ciha pro- 

 ceeding from one of the ends of the oval. Even while alive and 

 moving, I had convinced myself of the existence of two, and only 

 two, and they were veiy flexible. The active bodies moved over 

 and around each other by the waving of these cilia, and the mo- 

 tion of these organs caused a rapid flowing of the small (starch) 

 granules by the currents produced in the liquid confined in the 

 cell-cavity. 



Since the preceding lines were written, I have observed the 

 production of these ciliated bodies from the disorganized spiral 

 bands, and also some other phaenomena connected with them, 

 which I must reserve for a future notice, after I have investi- 

 gated them more fully. — A. H. 



