398 7 HE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



ments were effected by the aid of a flagellum or by 

 cilia. 



Gradually, in the course of the second day, the 

 chlorophyll within these rudimentary amoeboid or Acti- 

 nophrys-like masses passes through various stages of 

 transformation, by which the green matter becomes con- 

 verted into colourless protoplasm. During the process 

 the Actinophrys-like bodies become more and more ac- 

 tive, and the number of rays notably increases (*/), whilst 

 the substance of these organisms becomes more granular 

 and vacuoles develop in their interior. On the third 

 or fourth days the process of decolourization may be 

 complete; and no one, looking at these thoroughly 

 animalized organisms (e) for the first time, would be 

 inclined to believe that such active, many-rayed speci- 

 mens of Actinophrys could, but four or five days before, 

 have constituted portions of the green matter of one of 

 the filamentous Algae. Such specimens of Actinophrys 

 rapidly increase in size, though after a few days some 

 of them may retract their rays and become transformed 

 into active Amoebae (/). Certain of the green spheres 

 may also pass directly into Amoebae the substance of 

 the masses becoming more and more animalized as 

 decolourization advances. Other spheres may form a 

 condensed outer layer or cyst-like envelope, within 

 which the enclosed masses of protoplasm undergo their 

 various final stages of decolourization terminating in 

 the evolution of different higher forms of life to which 

 we shall subsequently refer, since they may also present 



