t 



392 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE: 



In addition to the presence of these peculiar tubu^ 



. Carter frequently found 



M 



Astasia 



same or in different fila- 



ments, and owing to the supposed absence of other, 

 means o^ accounting for the presence of these organ- 

 isms, he hazarded the not very convincing guess that 

 they may have been derived from some of the liberated 

 germs of the tubulating cells. The important point how- 



Mr 



Astasia 



to a great extent/ He says they at first exhibit almost 

 as much polymorphism as an Amc^ba, though after a 



form 



Astasi^e 



have a writhing 

 that of an injured earth-worm ' and ' 



On other occasions Mr. Carter has seen peculiar 

 filaments appear within the closed cells of Spirogyra. 

 There is, he says, ' frequently a development of long, 

 slender, colourless filaments, which 

 movement like 



some of the filaments present a faint appearance of 

 segmentation. Mr. Carter also states that such bodies 



r 



may be met with in Desmids. He says :— ' The same 

 kind of filaments occasionally appear in Closterlum ace- 

 rosum when its contents are passing into dissolution, 

 but long before the chlorophyll has changed colour or 



(Pritchard, pi. xxviii. figs. 65-71) ; whilst Claparede and Lachmann have 



seen the same kind of organisms appear within certain non- encysted 



Infusoria (' Ami. of Nat. Hist.' vol. xix. p. 238). The subsequent fate of 



the liberated particles (germs) is very uncertain and needs further 

 investigation. 



a(S thef 



'■1 are c 



ra and 



the Desi] 

 li ks also i 

 ]sku, and ir 



'0 



« 



1 



bj and he ai 

 leets probably 1 

 icikater Alga 



Ctanjes 



V 



ery 



"t as those a 

 by the 



a 



■*l^' And the 



' 'J»»nial of Mi 

 ' I kve myself, 



cr( 

 er 



^^'' Ttev 



'^ria, tho 



■., " ^^^-^ed to 



ttlieir 



!k. '^Presc- 







T * 



