130 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



tions, in which he remarks, that ' as the phenomena in 

 question appear to contradict certain principles admit- 

 ted into the reigtiiufi svstenis. we often prefer rather 

 to deny the conclusions of candid and experienced 

 observers, than to receive what has hi;hevto been re- 

 garded as untenable by generally admitted authority 

 In this situation are placed all observations upon the 

 transition or metamorphosis of vegetable lile (charac- 

 terised by immobility) into animal lite (characterised 

 by mobility); — the moment when a being, arrived at 

 the period of its existence, continues itself^ as it were, 

 by a new creation, and the animated embryo develops 

 itself into a motionless vegetable.'* Agardh, in his 

 account of another allied family (Ocillaioricc), has 

 even given figures, first of the plant, and then of the 

 animalcules into which its filaments are converted,! 

 which induced Bory St Vincent to remark sarcasti- 

 cally, that ' all nature appears, to the Professor of 

 Lund, to be nothing but confervce travestied. 'J 



Passing over what has been published on this 

 strange doctrine by Vaucher, Girod-Chantrans, Tre- 

 viranus. Cams, and others, we shall only stop to 

 mention the more recent observations of Francis 

 Unger. The plant he selected was the Conferva 

 dilatata fi of Roth. ' Within the space of one hour,' 

 says he, ' I succeeded in tracing, not only the dimi- 

 nution of vitality and death of the anin)alcules, but 

 also the subsequent development of the dead animals 

 into germinating plants, in such a manner as to 

 establish the truth of the fact.' He adds with great 

 simplicity, ' 1 could scarcely believe my own eyes.'^ 

 Like Agardh, he has given figures of these miracu 



* Quoted in ' .Annales des Sciences Natureiles' for 1828. 



t .Agardh, Icones .Alg. ined i, 10. 



t Diet. Classiqued'Hist. Nat., x, 469. 



§ Annaies des Sciences Nat., 1828. 



