288 Prof. H. Karsten on the Formation, 
Many of the globules enclosed within the sac, although con- 
taining no starch, had somewhat stronger walls, not reticulate, 
but uniformly thickened. The chlorophyil- and starch-corpuscles 
enclosed within the third cell of the interior were present in 
smaller quantity; but, on the other hand, the mass of reddish- 
brown vesicles and granular mucilage in the fourth of those cells 
had increased, apparently at the cost of the secretory matters, 
especially of the chlorophyll, of the next adjoining external cell; 
this substance was in other instances entirely absorbed, and only 
the starch, in reduced quantity, left. 
The red mass which occurs in the centre of the globule is 
usually at first not distinguishable through the chlorophyll, and 
probably is often altogether wanting, being only an accidental 
constituent, as in fact the future development tends to prove. 
Bary also describes the globules observed by him as brown, and 
as at length becoming of a dingy carmine-red colour. 
I am unable to offer any interpretation of the purpose of this 
structure in plants. On account of the peculiar act of extrusion 
from the mother cell by means of the little lid which is always 
present, I am disposed to look upon the process as an indepen- 
dent and normal act of development, which, however, I have not 
been able to trace. On the other hand, I have noticed a very 
remarkable abnormal phenomenon in certain globules, the fourth 
internal cell of which was filled with red matter, which had more 
or less completely supplanted its vegetable secretory material. 
I have frequently seen such globules, whilst still enclosed within 
the sac and fixed to the jomt-cell of. the Gidogonium, become 
slightly distended outwards at a particular point on one side, 
and an opening form at a corresponding point in the thickened 
outer envelope of the globule, as well as in the closely adherent 
membrane of the sac, to give a passage to the enclosed red mass. 
The body which escaped through this aperture was smooth and 
amcebiform, and forthwith assumed a spherical figure, enveloped 
by a colourless somewhat granular coat, from which long ciliary 
processes proceeded ; these were not stiff, but moveable and 
capable of shortening or lengthening themselves. The globular 
body, apparently making use of these moveable ciliary processes 
as organs of adhesion, rolled slowly about in various directions, 
Fig. 53 shows a body of this kind,‘magnified 700 diameters. 
In general, two or three such bodies emerged in succes- 
sion from the opening in the globule, and I have often observed 
them moving, in the manner above described, for hours after- 
wards. The sac, with the thick adherent membrane of the 
globule, either remained altogether empty, or some starch and 
the second inner cell-membrane continued visible. The small 
orifice through which the little amoeba-like beings had escaped 
