1 86 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



will grow weary with age and cease her activities 

 she will lose her fresh greenness and perish, and the 

 young, panting for liberty, will break through her 

 ruptured sides, and escape into the tiny water-world 

 where they were born. 



Under still higher powers and with the help of 

 a weak staining agent such as iodine and diluted 

 sulphuric acid, it will be seen that the green spots 

 are united by extremely fine protoplasmic threads 

 which pass through the sides of the hexagonal 

 cells. There may also be detected minute atoms of 

 colourless protoplasm, which is probably the agent 

 of cell-division. When the cell is ripe it opens 

 without abruptness, as if there were a natural vent 

 which is gradually prepared for this crisis, and the 

 ensphered young glide out. At first they are tied 

 to the parent by long filaments which prevent 

 revolution, but soon the threads give way and the 

 sweets of perfect liberty are tasted. Whether there 

 is actual revolution of the young within the parent 

 globe, or whether the apparent revolution is due 

 to au optical illusion caused by the motion of the 

 mother-cell, is a point on which authorities differ, and 

 is one about which I am not prepared to pronounce 

 dogmatically. 



There is, however, another reproductive process 

 which may be witnessed in the later part of the year. 

 Two distinct kinds of cells are developed within 

 some of the larger globes, the one an egg-sphere 

 (Oospkere), and the other a sperm-sphere (Anther -o- 

 zoid). In higher plants these correspond to pollen 

 and ovules. The egg-spheres are fertilised by the 



