Mr. H. J. Carter on Abnormal Development in Ctldogonium. 37 



iridium olla*, which iilso grows out of the sporangium of QCdo' 

 f/onium ; and if so, the talented authors of the * Micrographic 

 Dictionary' make a mistake in referring the latter to the spore 

 of (Edogonium described by rringshcinif, which contains cldo- 

 rophyll ])revious to the subsequent dcvcl()i)nients that take place 

 in it; unless, indeed, tlicy allude to these developments, which, 

 according to my idea of the origin of Clujtridiuin, or the conical 

 cell I have described, arc of the same nature. Neither should 

 Prof. Braun's Chytridium be confounded with Prof. Pringsheim's 

 'androspore' of Oulut/uniuin ciliahim^. The latter, however, 

 thinks that the former has described little plants of this kind 

 among his new species of Unicellular Algw§. 



However, the growth I have described appears to me to be 

 neither one nor the other, but an ultimate development of the 

 jn'otoplasm, which, though deprived of the part which bears the 

 chloro])hyll and the amount of formative power which is requisite 

 to produce a new plant, nevertheless retains sufficient to form 

 monads and polymorphic cells consecutively for a short time, 

 until the whole is expended. 



It is true that the monad of this development may return to 

 the cell-wall of another spore-cell, and tubulate through it to 

 the healthy spore, or effect this directly by entering through the 

 mieropyle; for I have frequently seen one present with the 

 spermatozoids ; since what the parent-cell can do one way the 

 offspring may do the other ; but a similar development may be 

 seen among the contents even of the adjoining ordinary cells 

 where there is no opening; and although they do not grow out 

 into conical cells, the ultimate products, viz. monads, are the 

 same. The same thing takes place in Spirogyra\\, where there 

 is frequently a globular sac on the cell-wall that opens by a cir- 

 cular lid, if the latter may be inferred from the circular form of 

 the aperture ; while these sacs may be seen under polymor{)hisni 

 inside the Spirogyra-ccW before they begin to tubulate through 

 it. Besides, I shall soon have to show that a similar develop- 

 ment takes place from the e.^^ of the worm Nais when its deve- 

 lopment has been arrested. Lastly, take the protoplasm of the 

 cell of Nitella, which is made up of mucus-cells in the natural, 

 rotatory state ; which cells, under certain circumstances, sepa- 

 rately, enclose portions of the starch-bearing green layer, and 

 ultimately bring forth a group of monads respectively^. May 



* " Rejuvenescence in Nature," Eng. Trans, by A. Henfrey, p. 185. 

 t Annals, vol. xi. p. 297, 1853. 

 X Loc. cit. § Id. 



II Annals, vols. xvii. & xix. pp. 101 & 259, respectively. 

 ir Idem, vol. xvii. loc. cit. See also similar transformatioas in Euglena, 

 figured in the plates. 



