ARCHER — ON STEPHANOSPH.33RA PLUVIALrS (COHN). 167 



alter his views. He now thinks that this was not really due to an amoe- 

 boid condition of the contents of the cell itself, but rather, if I under- 

 stand his remarks aright, to a true rhizopod, whose germ had been in- 

 cluded by some means within the mass of protoplasm, or that it was a 

 development of the parasitic plant, Chytridium endogenum (A. Br.). 

 Judging from the analogy of the other cases cited, it does seem in- 

 deed not improbable that it may have been likewise an example of 

 an amoeboid condition of the protoplasm, though it seems possible that 

 this, as well as the development of Braun's Chytridium endogenum, 

 may have been witnessed by him. Unfortunately his paper, which 

 is published merely in abstract from the "Journal of the Bombay 

 Branch of the Boyal Asiatic Society," is without illustrations; and 

 it is difficult to gain an exact idea of what the phenomena really were, 

 which it is intended to record. But he seems to describe a truly rhizo- 

 podous state of the so-called "monads" (zoospores) evolved from the 

 Chytridium, which may really be a case in point, and which at least 

 remind us of the phenomena described by Schenk as regards the zo- 

 ospores in the closely related parasitic plant, Rhizidium intestinum, be- 

 fore alluded to. Carter likewise seems to speak of a "polymorphous" 

 condition of the cell-contents in the Characese ;* but the plants under 

 examination by him, so far as I can venture to judge, seem to have been 

 in an abnormal and decaying condition, and had apparently become the 

 prey of some parasites — nay, he speaks himself! of the hole by which the 

 parasite might have found its way into the infested plant. That the 

 whole was in an unhealthy condition I venture to think, from his speak- 

 ing of the occurrence of a transparent mucus, with a great development 

 of Bacterium termo (Duj.), (mucus and Bacterium taken together being 

 Zooglcea termo, Cohn), and always indicative of the decay of the mass 

 amongst which it makes its appearance. Therefore I should venture to 

 exclude any of the conditions forming the subject of Carter's obser- 

 vations on Characeae from the same category as that of Stephanosphaera, 

 Vol vox, Bbizidium, &c, forming the subject of this paper ; that is, I 

 should imagine, they do not form an example of an amoeboid condition 

 of vegetable protoplasm, but are actually foreign parasitic growths, with 

 the exception possibly (as above indicated) of the zoospores of the Chy- 

 tridium. 



I have mentioned the case of the zoospores of Rhizidium as the only 

 other instance, besides Dr. Hicks', I had found recorded of a strictly amoe- 

 boid condition of an undoubted vegetable cell. For, as by so experienced 

 and masterly an observer as Professor deBary the hitherto so-called Myxo- 

 gastric Fungi have been accounted as belonging to the Animal Kingdom, 

 the amoeboid condition of these organisms cannot be quoted as occurring 

 in " undoubted'''' plants ;'| but that that group of organisms, while their re- 



* " Observations on the Development of Gonidia from the Cell-contents of Characeas," 

 &c. (Ann. Nat. Hist., 2nd Ser., vol. xvi., p. 1) ; also, " Further Observations on the De- 

 velopment of Gonidia from the Cell- contents of Characeae" (Ann. Nat. Hist, 2nd Ser., 

 vol. xviii., p. 101). 



f " Ann. Nat. Hist.," vol. xvi., p. 21. 



\ De Barv, "Die Mycetozoen," in Siebold and Kolliker's "Zeitschrift fur wissen- 

 schaftliche Zoologie," Band X., pag. 88. 



2a 



