88 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
Desnudiacece, of which a species of Euastrum is represented 
in Fig. 18 as a specimen. 
Fig. 18.—Enuastrum rota, a single-celled Desmid, much enlarged. The 
whole of the star-shaped body of this primeval plant has the formal value 
of a simple cell. In its centre lies the kernel, and within this the kernel 
corpuscle, or speck. 
It is very probable that similar primeval plants, the 
soft body of which, however, was not capable of being 
preserved in a fossil state, at one time peopled the Lau- 
rentian primeeval sea in great masses and varieties, and in 
a great abundance of forms, without, however, going beyond 
the stage of individuality of a simple plastid. 
The group of Green Tangles (Chlorophycee), or Green 
Alge (Chloroalgze), are the second class, and the most closely 
allied to the primeval group. Like the majority of the 
Archephycez, all the Chlorophycez are coloured green, and 
