10 



Mr. H. J. Carter on Eudorina elegans. 



the Pando7'ina- form which leads to that of Gonium is produced 

 by a segmentation similar to that of the spermatozoid duplica- 

 tive subdivision ; and this, among the thirty-two-cell Eudorime, 

 has frequently passed into conical groups of spermatozoids, so 

 that the water of the tank in which this variety existed abounded 

 in these groups, free and eliminated entire, and, it is worthy of 

 notice, still retaining respectively the effete eye-spot of the parent 

 adhering to one part of their circumference — showing that the 

 whole contents of the mother-cell do not enter into the forma- 

 tion of her progeny. But the most remarkable thing presented 

 by these groups was their pertinacious adherence, by means of 

 their cilia, to the external envelopes of the entire Eudorince, 

 while, when the groups were broken up, there was an equal 

 amount of perseverance shown in the separate spermatozoid 

 forms to incorporate themselves vrith the single cells which had 

 become liberated, apparently from decomposition of the envelopes 

 of the entire Eudorince, — thus evincing that same impulse to 

 incorporation when there were no spore-cells present for them 

 to fecundate, as that which I have described under the normal 

 development of the spermatozoid for this purpose. 



Notwithstanding the resemblance of these spermatozoids to 

 those produced in the normal development, they were neither so 

 plastic nor so linear in their form, having a great tendency to pass 

 from the original horn-like or elongated flask-like shape into that 

 of a conical biciliated cell. On the other hand, in the tank where 

 the sixteen-cell Eudorina prevailed, though there was an equal 

 amount of Pfl?it?orma- development, there was not a single sper- 

 matozoid. Not one came under my observation, which seems to 

 afford another reason for inferring that, in this variety, sperma- 

 tozoids are not developed. It is now also evident to me (as it 

 seems to have been also to others), from the isolated state in 

 which I have frequently seen the spermatic groups of Sphcei^oswa 

 Volvox, as well as those just mentioned, that, in their more 

 enlarged or expanded forms, they constitute Ehrenberg's Syn- 

 cryj)ta, Synura, and Uroglena (tab. 3. figs. 7, 9-11). 



Lastly, in describing the cells of Eudorina (/. c), I have called 

 the starch-cells "nuclei," the nucleus itself being undistinguish- 

 able. Had I reflected a little, this mistake would not have 

 occurred; but I was led into it by observing, in Chlamy do coccus ^ 

 that the single spherical cell which it contains became elongated 

 and divided previous to each division of the CJdamydococcus, in 

 order that each division and subdivision might be provided with 

 a cell of this kind. It is, therefore, an important organ in the 

 vegetable cell, but, as with many other things, escapes particular 

 attention until we come to study the cell in its isolated and in- 

 dependent form, when it is living as a separate being; then, 



