436 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



of the transformation of entire organisms into the most 

 varied vegetal or animal forms of life. 



1. Resolution Into "Fungus-germs . Some specimens of 

 Euglenas having been placed in a c live-box' without 

 sufficient ventilation, after twenty-four hours several of 

 them were seen to be undergoing decolourization and 

 developing Fungus-germs in their interior. They had 

 all assumed a spherical form, and most of them were 

 undergoing the same kind of change. Some of them 

 contained a variable amount of brownish black matter, 

 derived from a metamorphosis of a portion of the chlo- 

 rophyll; though intermixed with it there were to be 

 seen certain unaltered chlorophyll vesicles, as well as 

 a number of colourless corpuscles, about Twinr" i n 

 diameter, which, judging from what might be seen in 

 contiguous Euglense, were evidently Fungus-germs. 

 For in many of these Euglenae only a small amount of 

 pale-green matter still remained distributed amongst 

 the colourless spherules with which they were now filled ; 

 whilst in others, several of the Fungus-germs had given 

 birth to large filaments, which grew outwards and 

 flourished externally in all directions. 



2. External Vesiculation^ <with Resolution Into Monads 

 or Fungi. This change is one of those which I have 

 most frequently observed taking place amongst Euglense, 

 after they have existed for some time in a motionless 

 state as constituents of a Euglena-pellicle, and when 

 the intrinsic and extrinsic conditions are not sufficiently 



