344 Prof. Morren on Infusoria in Plants. 
XL.—On the Existence of Infusoria in Plants. By CHARLES 
Morren, M.D., Professor of Botany in the University of 
Liege*. 
THE perusal of the account of Professor Reeper’s Researches 
respecting the cells of Sphagnum and their pores+, brought to 
my recollection some facts which I witnessed while studying 
the natural history of our indigenous Algze, and which I think 
it useful to make known at present, as they may clear up some 
doubts which still exist in science. 
The labours of Roeper, to which I have just referred, show 
that the cells of Sphagnum are sometimes furnished with 
openings, which place their interior cavity in communication 
with the air or water in which they are immersed. This 
skilful observer satisfied himself, that when circumstances 
are favourable, the Rotifer vulgaris, one of the Infusoria 
whose organization has been explained by the researches of 
Ehrenberg, exists in the cells of the Sphagnum obtusifolium. — 
This grew in the air in the middle of a turf-pit, but Roeper 
observed its leaves in water; he does not mention whether the 
infusorial animal came from thence, or whether it was pre- 
viously contained in the cavities of the cells. The general 
purport of the paper seems to imply that these Rotiferi exist 
in the cells of that part of the plant which was exposed to 
the air; and in this case, the presence of an animal so com- 
plicated, living as a parasite in the cells of an utricular aérial 
tissue, 1s a phenomenon of the most curious kind in the phy- 
siology of plants, and the more so as this animal is an aquatic 
one. | 
I recollected that the last year of my residence in Flanders 
I found at Everghem, near Ghent, the Vaucheria clavata, in 
which I observed something similar. M. Unger had already 
published the following details respecting this plant in 1828: 
‘“¢ Beneath the emptied tubercules and at several points of the 
principal stalk, at different angles, rather narrower branches are 
produced ; these branches are generally very long, and greatly 
exceed the principal stalk in length. At the end of ten or 
twelve days after their development, there are seen, towards 
one or other of their extremities, here and there, at differ- 
ent distances from the summit, protuberances of a clavate 
form, more or less regular, straight or slightly bent back ; 
and others on the sides of the stalk, which have the form 
* From the Bulletin of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Brussels, vol. 
vi. No. 4. 
+ Annales des Sciences Naturelles, tom. x., November 1836, p. 314; 
Flora, 1838, p. 17. 
