INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 117 



before he went to Ceylon, and the duties of his station require 

 so much active labour, that he has been obliged to confine his 

 thoughts and care principally to them, to the neglect of his 

 former studies, a circumstance of much regret to all lovers 

 of Crytogamic Botany. Some Glceocapsa?, undoubtedly, are 

 states of more highly organised forms, as Ephehe, which 

 clearly does not belong to Algae at all, but to the gelatinous 

 Lichens. It is probable, however, after all, that there may 

 be real species of these lower genera ; species, that is, which 

 do not undergo any further transformation; for mere similarity 

 of form or strvicture does not always point out similarity of 

 essence, or we could not distinguish the cellular state of some 

 animal organisms from their analogous forms amongst vege- 

 tables. Whatever be their nature, few objects are more 

 beautiful under the microscope, than some of the higher and 

 more perfect forms, and few give a better opportunity of stu- 

 dying the development of cells, whether as regards their 

 division or the nature of the walls. One of the most curious 

 forms, perhaps, is that assumed by some species of Glceocapsa, 

 in which the inner membrane repea,tedly bursts through the 

 outer, though always adherent behind, so as to form a gelati- 

 nous mass of annulated threads, with a bright eye at the tip 

 of each.* The endochrome is occasionally bipartite, and then 

 each new endochrome acts for itself The species which I 



Fig. 28. 



Glceocapsa Hookeri, Berk. & Hass. 



Threads and spores highly magnified, from specimens communicated 

 by Sir W. J. Hooker. 



* Dr. Gieswald has figured a similar appearance in the mother-cells 

 of the pollen of Cucurhita. Linn, xxv., tab. 1, fig. 30. 



