THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 153 



We have thus endeavoured to show that the Bacte- 

 rium and the Torula corpuscle are only different modes 

 of growth which may be assumed by new-born specks 

 of living matter, and that the varieties of each kind 

 of growth are both numerous and transitional. Each 

 of these forms, under suitable conditions, may grow in 

 a continuous rather than in a discontinuous fashion *, 

 producing variously branched and articulated growths, 

 which at intervals are apt again to revert to the dis- 

 continuous mode of growth, so as to produce repro- 

 ductive units either in single file, as buds from a 

 terminal expansion, or by fission of the contents of 

 a terminal chamber. These, and many other simple 

 variations in the mode of production of the repro- 

 ductive units, variously combined with different sizes, 

 modes of branching, articulation and segmentation of 

 the filaments, etc., go to produce the innumerable 

 simpler kinds of Fungi which, instead of being lineal 

 descendants of similar mutable organisms that lived 

 in a pre-Adamite world, are only different modes of 

 growth which may be assumed by new-born living 

 matter 2 . This notion was* to a certain extent favoured 

 by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley when, after alluding to some 

 of the many startling metamorphoses which are to be 

 observed amongst these most changeable organic forms, 

 he says 3 : f lt would thus seem that the opinions of 



1 For the reasons already stated this process is most easily watched 

 during the development of Torula. 



2 Concerning the mutability of Fungi, see Appendix D, p. Ixxvi. 



3 In Lindley's 'Vegetable Kingdom,' 3rd ed. 1853, p. 35. 



