THE FROTOCOCCUS NIVALIS. 43 



to give a faint crimson tinge to the paper. Placed under the 

 microscope, these granules resolve themselves into spherical 

 purple cells, from the T&Wth to the soWth part of an inch in 

 diameter. Each of these cells has an opening, surrounded by 

 serrated or indented lines, whose smallest diameter does not 

 exceed the inhiitth part of an inch ! When perfect, the plant is 

 not unlike a red-currant b'erry ; as it decays, the red colouring 

 matter fades into a deep orange, and the deep orange changes 

 into a dull brown. The thickness of the wall of the cell does 

 not exceed the suowth part of an inch ! Each cell may be 

 considered a distinct individual plant, since it is perfectly 

 independent of others with which it may be aggregated, and 

 performs for and by itself all the functions of growth and 

 reproduction, having a containing membrane which absorbs 

 liquids and gases from the surrounding matrix or elements, 

 a contained fluid of peculiar character, formed out of these 

 materials, and a number of excessively minute granules, 

 equivalent to spores, or, as some would say, to cellular buds, 

 which are to become the genus of new plants. There is 

 something, adds Mr Macmillan, extremely mysterious in the 

 performance of these /jjj\ 

 widely different func- W' 

 tions, by an organism FIG. s. Protococcus nivahs. 



which appears so excessively simple. That one and the same 

 primitive cell should thus minister equally to absorption, nutri- 

 tion, and reproduction, is an extraordinary illustration of the 

 fact, that the smallest and simplest organised object is, in 

 itself, and for the part it was created to perform in the ope- 



