580 DR. J. B. HICKS ON THE GONIDIA AND 
possibility of their segmenting. It is hoped that the following observations may tend to 
throw some light upon the question, and to reconcile the conflicting evidence of these 
great observers, upon which I shall more particularly dwell in reviewing the points of 
interest in this paper. 
During the years 1859-60 I grew Moss under glass. The various branches threw out 
numberless confervoid filaments, some of which approached the radicular rather than 
the confervoid type. However, it was in both that I observed that each of the bodies 
which corresponded to the " chlorophyll-utricles " of other parts possessed the power of 
enlarging. This is drawn in PI. LVIII. fig. 23 a. In PL LVIII. fig. 23 b are shown 
two portions of filaments, with the chlorophyll-granules just beginning to show con- 
sistence on their exterior. This was best noticed in those which were escaping from a 
broken cell. At c is shown a number of these cells in various degrees of growth ; and it 
was easy, by comparing the contents of the various cells, to see that the smaller possessed 
the same origin as the larger. 
As they increased, they showed a more distinct outline ; and it was clear that, whatever 
doubts might attach itself to the existence of a membrane on the exterior of the chlo- 
rophyll-utricles of the leaves and ordinary confervoid filaments, these contents were 
enclosed by a delicate envelope : and as they further enlarged, a nucleus appeared in the 
(•entre. After a time, the parent cell broke up, and these once chlorophyll-utricles, but 
now distinct cells, became free. 
In the undisturbed condition in which they existed, and being held together by the 
gum-like character of the residue of the parent-cell wall, they of course did not spread 
far ; and as the filaments had attached themselves" to the sides of the glass, I had an 
excellent opportunity of watching their subsequent progress. 
After increasing gradually in an oval form, they arrived to about the tto"o i ncn * n 
size, when they began to segment into two, or three, or four divisions, or even into more 
(PL LVIII. fig. 22 d), a nucleus appearing in each division. 
When the resulting cells were two or three, they were almost always oval, the line of 
separation taking place obliquely in the oval parent cell (PL LVIII. fig. 2Sd). When, 
however, the secondary cells were more than that, then they formed around a common 
axis. At this period the cell-wall of the parent cell (once chlorophyll-utricle) was very 
marked. 
After they had remained some months in a state of nearly complete quiescence, I placed 
some of these segmenting cells into water on a slide, and, covering them with ordinary 
thin glass, I put them in the sun for about an hour. To my great surprise, I found the 
whole water alive with zoospores. There were thousands in the square inch, in a most 
active state. Further examination showed that the segments had been released by the 
bursting of the parent-cell wall, and had now become these zoospores. After a time they 
came to rest, and altogether lost their activity. I preserved the slide for some time, but 
1 could not determine anything very definite as to their after-life, beyond that they came 
to rest, lost their cilia, and again subdivided. 
These zoospores were of light-green colour ; they differed slightly in size, and were 
principally oval ; some, however (and these were the larger), were round. They possessed 
