Infusorial Circuit of Generations. 229 



my papers will show, this particular form belongs to the common 

 Silver-moss (Bryum argenteum) which is widely disseminated all 

 over the surface of the globe, and that, by the way, rather scantily 

 " fructifies " in a " sexual " fashion, i. e. by the development of a 

 theca ; but on clayey soils fills all the sluggish and stagnant waters 

 with its virescent uliginous sj)awns ; while it covers the surface 

 of fields, by millions of acres, with a minute crust, or " hrick-red 

 leprosy, "* whose fine, molecular dust is swept aloft by every wind. 

 Immediately before the frost, the same fields are densely covered 

 with a small crop of minute moss, doomed to perish in this form, but 

 revived in its spawns at the fii'st thaw in the shape of a universal 

 chalk-white " clay-hloom" or pruinose efflorescence from the soil, 

 and that in water at once re-develops into the so-called Protocoecus 

 (or Chlamydococcus) pluvialis in the form of green flagellate-roving 

 beads. 



These minute, but in this instance coated, swarming cells are 

 replete with chlorophyll, and are globular ovoid in shape. They 

 have at their smaller end, just where the m.otov flayellu in (or vibra- 

 tory lash) arises, a clear point of substance ; wherein, in a small 

 percentage of these cells, a ^mrasite is found to develop. 



This parasite is a perfectly colourless globule, apparent in the 

 clear navel-point of the cell, and exhibits a faintly opalescent hue. 

 As it grows, the cell which harbours the "incubus" loses its own 

 individual vitality. It ceases to swarm about and dissect into hving, 

 chlorophylliferous and automatons progenies, as the live ones do. 

 Instead of spontaneously dissolving as in the living process the cell- 

 coat remains firm ; and as the parasitic animal yolk grows and 

 occupies more space, executing tremulous and vibratory contractions, 

 the chlorophyll is pressed into the rear, a lifeless mass. At last the 

 cell is ruptured in fi'ont, and the cupular-compressed, dead, chloro- 

 phylline mass remains inert and void of life until devoui'ed by Infu- 

 soria or the zymotic fungus. The cell-coat, likewise, is efiete, while 

 the larger globular and somewhat acicularly-granulated incubus, 

 after a few very wry contractions, at once widely opens a large, 

 ciliate mouth, gaping across the sphere's surface ; and disengaging 



* See ' St. Louis Med. Keporter,' Jan. 1st, 1867, pp. 522, 527, 528. Also ' Proc. 

 St. Louis Ac. Sc' (July, 1861), vol, ii., No. 1, p. 160; and vol. 1., p. 156. For 

 " Chlorococcum " read '' Sphcerocarpus " (lately renamed " Protubenins '' Ag.) and 

 its "botrydiuui" progenies. The latter collapse and turn red. TliLs pulverulent, 

 miniate '■'' Lepraria kermesina" Auct., must, however, by no means be confounded 

 with the darkly purpureous, uliginous moss-spawns which cover, e. g. the hilly 

 " Orange-sand " regions of the State of Mississippi. It is prevalent in winter in 

 damp weather, and consists of matted red " Microcoleus " or lumbricoid (sheathing) 

 moss-cells, each one containing a central brood-fibre which is medullary-dotted, 

 dissecting, and fascicularly surrounded by a stratum of (automatons, prorepent) 

 " Oscillaria "-fibrils. Not only the ultimately enlarged (chlorophylliferous) brood- 

 segments, but also the dark undulating fibre, form brood-balls (terminally). Its 

 gelatine forms a cement of the loose sandy clay, and a home or abode for the 

 Cladouia; (or bright-green foliolate lichens) as well as for grasses, &c. 



