THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 411 



They thus formed ovoidal bodies which speedily de- 

 veloped cilia over their whole surface, and became at 

 once converted into Enchelys-like Ciliata 1 , very 

 similar in appearance to those above referred to, which 

 seemed to have been ultimately produced from the 

 metamorphosed corpuscles of Nitella. 



At other times, according to Dr. Gros, the individual 

 chlorophyll corpuscles of Euglenx become the parents 

 of various Confervse and Oscillatorise. And, strange as 

 it may appear that apparently similar products should 

 at one time develop into animal forms and at another 

 give birth to unmistakeable vegetal products, it is 

 imperative that we should more and more familiarize 

 ourselves with the notion of the frequency with which 

 these interchanges occur. Many such cases will sub- 

 sequently be mentioned, in addition to the instance 

 now about to be cited, which we owe to the careful 

 observations of Dr. Braxton Hicks, who, having already 

 alluded to the circumstance that the chlorophyll cor- 

 puscles of moss-radicles had been seen to undergo 

 transformations whereby they became resolved into a 

 nest of Monad-like bodies 2 , tells us in another place 3 

 that he has frequently seen masses of Gleocapsa 

 developed from the older leaves at the base of the stem 

 of many Mosses. These leaves frequently assume a 

 brownish aspect in winter and spring, owing to the cell 

 walls taking on this colour whilst their contents still 



1 Loc. cit., pp. 330 and 487, Pi. J, figs, i and 3. 

 2 See Appendix D, p. Ixxi. s ' Trans, of Linn. Soc. 1 1862, p. 581. 



