1 



396 



7 HE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE: 



ments are seen to take place in the masses^ causin^^- 

 movements to and fro of the contained granules and 

 vesicles, and also producing extremely slight and tern- 

 porary irregularities in the outline of the sphere. We 

 have^ in fact^ to do with artificially separated masses 



r 



of the algoid protoplasm which are already more than 

 half amoeboid in nature. 



■ L 



. The changes that take place in an unhealthy fila- 

 ment are therefore not difficult to understand. When 

 the conditions are unfavourable for the continuance of 



4 



the life of the Alga^ portions of its protoplasm of 

 various sizes become individualized within the fi!a- 

 ment ^ and such a change may simultaneously affect the 

 whole of the protoplasmic contents of a certain length 

 of filament^ so that on microscopical examination it 

 may be seen to have become arranged into spheroids 



of various sizes, from 



// 



2"T}0"iy 



to 



1 ^/ 



500 



in diameter (a). In 



this stage the chlorophyll vesicles within the spheres 

 may be perhaps of a brigliter green than usual, whilst 

 here and there, in some of the spheres, they may have 

 begun to decolourize by assuming various tints of olive- 



green. 



In this stage the individualized masses are 



quite motionless^ or at most they merely exhibit some 

 very slight alterations in the disposition of the dia- 

 phanous protoplasm existing at their surface {c). Others 

 of them^ however, whilst their contained chlorophyll 

 vesicles are still unaltered, protrude a few pseudopodia, 

 by the languid contraction and extension of which the 

 masses very slowly move from place to place {h). On 



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d. 



Transformatic 



' Won of small 1 

 *es into an 



'■*« of masses < 

 means of pse, 



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