350 COSMOS. 



manifested in the motion of the granular mucus of marine 

 plants, (naiades, characeae, hydrocharidae,) and in the hairs of 

 phanerogamic land plants ; in the molecular motion first dis- 

 covered by the illustrious botanist Robert Brown, and which 

 may be traced in the ultimate portions of every molecule of 

 matter even when separated from the organ; in the gyra- 

 tory currents of the globules of cambium (cyclosis) circu- 

 lating in their peculiar vessels; and finally, in the singu- 

 larly articulated self-unrolling filamentous vessels in the 

 antheridia of the chara, and in the reproductive organs of 

 liverworts and algae, in the structural conditions of which 

 Meyen, unhappily too early lost to science, believed that he 

 recognised an analogy with the spermatozoa of the animal 

 kingdom.^' If to these manifold currents and gyratory move- 

 ments we add the phenomena of endosmosis, nutrition, and 

 growth, we shall have some idea of those forces, which are 

 ever active amid the apparent repose of vegetable life. 



Since I attempted in a former work, Ansichten der Natur, 

 (Views of Nature) to delineate the universal diffusion of life 

 over the whole surface of the Earth, in the distribution- of 

 organic forms, both with respect to elevation and depth, our 

 knowledge of this branch of science has been most remark- 

 ably increased by Ehrenberg's brilliant discovery " on micro- 

 scopic life in the ocean, and in the ice of the polar regions," 

 a discovery based not on deductive conclusions, but on 

 direct observation. The sphere of vitality, we might almost 



* [" In certain parts, probably, of all plants, are found peculiar spiral 

 filaments, having \\ striking resemblance to the spermatozoa of animals. 

 They have been long known in the organs called the antheridia of 

 Mosses, Hepaticas, and Characeae, and have more recently been disco- 

 vered in peculiar cells on the germinal frond of ferns, and on the very 

 young leaves of the buds of Phanerogamia. They are found in peculiar 

 cells, and when these are placed in water they are torn by the filament, 

 which commences an active spiral motion. The signification of these 

 organs is at present quite unknown ; they appear, from the researches of 

 Nageli, to resemble the cell mucilage, or proto-plasma, in composition, 

 and are developed from it. Schleiden regards them as mere mucila- 

 ginous deposits, similar to those connected with the circulation in cells, 

 and he contends that the movement of these bodies in water is analo- 

 gous to the molecular motion of small particles of organic and inorganic 

 substances, and depends on mechanical causes." Outlines of Structural 

 and Physiological Botany, by A. Henfrey, F.L.S., &c., 1846, p. 23. j Tr. 



