458 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



At other times and in Euglense which had become 

 spherical, although not encysted I have seen the trans- 

 formation take place after a different fashion. The 

 chlorophyll vesicles broke up so as to resolve themselves 

 into green granules which speedily assumed different 

 shades of colour (such as olive, brown, and yellow) 

 before complete decolourization. Some highly charac- 

 teristic specimens were seen, in which the red spot 

 still partly remained, and in which the majority of the 

 granules were of a greenish colour. But in other 

 contiguous vesicles of the same size nothing but 

 granules were to be seen, partly colourless and partly 

 of an olive and brownish yellow colour. Gradually 

 all the granules became decolourized, and the substance 

 of the organism having become more fluent exhibited 

 slow amoeboid alterations in shape. And in propor- 

 tion as the large granules disappeared, so did the mass 

 become more and more active, till at last it was con- 

 verted into an ordinary finely-granular Amoeba. 



The conversion of Euglense into Actinophrys I have 

 not seen, though it seems to have been frequently 

 observed by Dr. Gros. The Euglena whilst still in its 

 green state protrudes ray-like projections from its sur- 

 face, and gradually undergoes an internal elaboration 

 and molecular transformation, in the progress of which 

 it becomes decolourized, and at the same time more 



beenne, jusqu'a ce qu'elle ait sa quote-part de substance necessaire a ses 

 metamorphoses ulterieures.' (Loc. cit., p. 311. This transformation is 

 also mentioned on pp. 305, 314, and 318.) 



