210 
flying about for some time in such a lively manner that an 
observer meeting with it and unaware of its origin, would 
certainly be inclined to rank it within the confines of the 
animal kingdom. In this state it has been called a “ motile 
spore,” but we will see, further on, that it hardly can be 
ranked as an ovum in the ordinary acceptation of the word. 
Up to this period our record, as hitherto published, is 
complete, but just here is a gap and it has been my good 
fortune to make such observations as fill it and complete 
our knowledge of the life history of this plant. It is known, 
however, that the motile condition just described is but 
transitory, and perhaps it may have been on account of the 
velocity of its movement, and the consequent difficulty of 
keeping it under observation that the next step has not, as 
yet, been observed. In some unknown way, then, it has 
been supposed that the active spherical form assumes the static 
condition, develops rootlets or filaments, which serve to 
attach it to other objects and then, being fixed, it thereafter 
by means of the usual well-known method of cell sub-division, 
developes into a new filament resembling exactly the parent 
plant from which it sprung. AsI have said, I have been 
enabled to show how the motile form is changed or, more 
properly speaking, developed into the static form and, at the 
same time, I think, throw some light upon an important 
portion of microscopic biology. The changes and transfor- 
mations which I herein record, I have seen not merely a few 
times, but perhaps, thirty or forty, so that Iam enabled 
to speak confidently as to the accuracy of my notes, as I 
have watched the whole process. It is as follows. At first 
the bright green-colored cell-contents, around and investing 
which I have not been able to satisfy myself that I have 
seen a “ Primordial utricle,” grow gradually coarser in tex- 
ture by a process of differentiation of the mass in such a way 
that granules appear which increase in dimensions at the 
expense of the surrounding and investing substance, until 
the whole cell is filled with a coarsely granulated mass, 
differing little in color from the original cell-contents. At 
the same time the whole green mass recedes somewhat from 
