146 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



was not until 1840 that the development of ToruU 

 into Fungi was traced^. The multiplication of Bacteria^ 

 however, even more frequently takes place without 

 much tendency to the evolution of higher forms • and 

 when this does occur it is not quite so easily recocr- 

 nizable as the development of TontU. And yet in 

 those cases where the conditions are, as we must sup- 

 pose, favourable to such continuous modes of growth 

 certain Bacteria may enlarge into FiMo-fovms these 

 into Lepothrlx, and the latter into larger and 

 definite fungus-mycelia, just as surely and just 



readily as the Torula corpuscle buds out into a growing 

 fungus-mycelium 2. 



The stages by which a Torula corpuscle develops 



more 



as 



^ It was believed by Klitzing to be one of the unicellular Algte, and 

 the same view was afterwards adopted by Robin, in spite of the state- 

 ments of Turpin. The development of Torulce at once into fungus- 

 mycelia, producing the mother of vinegar {Mycoderma aceta), contrasts 

 notably with the discontinuous mode of growth and perpetuation of 

 the Torula form, which obtains in some forms of the vinous fermen- 

 tation. 



^ I have found the former development take place very readily in 

 certain infusions to which a minute fragment of cheese had been added, 

 and also in some solutions of ammonic tartrate and sodic phosphate. 

 (See Appendix D, Exps. xvii, xix, and Hi). In other cases Vihrio4ovms 

 may assume the Spirillum mode of growth, rather than that of Leptoihrix, 

 before giving origin to a fungus-mycelium — as I have seen in an infusion 

 containing young twigs of the common elder. {Fig^ 47 d.) Between 

 Leptothrix again and some of the colourless OscillatoricB there seems to be 

 no real ascertainable distinction. Moreover, all shades of increasing 

 greenness exist amongst the representatives of this latter family, which by 

 common consent is included amongst the Algae ; so that they constitute 

 transitions between the simplest Fungi and Algse. 



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