﻿64 DEBY'S RESEARCHES ON THE CRYPTOGAMIC FLORA 



These last cells soon take a rounded form, become immovable, attain gradually their 

 full size, absorb their flagelliform appendages, lose their wide outer membrane, cover 

 themselves with a tenaceous and thick cell membrane, turn gradually to yellowish, 

 then to red, or to a brownish-red hue, and now all organic functions seem to lie dormant 

 in them for awhile. Fig. 21. 



If these red cells be submitted to the action of iodine and sulphuric acid, they again 

 take a green color. I attribute this to the fact that the gelin coating is turned blue 

 and the protein coating yellow by these tests, the combination of which two colors 

 forms green, but this is only hypothetical. 



In some accidental cases the last generations of gonidia, instead of following the 

 above mentioned order of phenomena, divide rapidly into 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 smaller gonidia, 

 which are at first aggregate inside the mother cell which has produced them. (Fig. 

 22.) They, however, ultimately break loose and swim about freely for some time, 

 without seeming either to grow larger or to produce new cells. These are the Micro- 

 gonidia of Alex. Braun ; they vary from T ~ to ? z of a millimetre in diameter, have 

 two flagelliform appendages, are of a yellowish or yellowish-green color, and have the 

 rostrum slightly reddish. Fig. 23. 



The larger fixed red cells formed by the last (19th) generation of gonidia remain 

 dormant for an indefinite period if left in water. They even seem to die and decompose 

 if left there for a great length of time. But if the water they are contained in be 

 slowly evaporated to dryness in the sun, be it only for a few hours, and fresh water be 

 poured over them, new life is soon manifested, and generally by the next morning 

 fresh gonidia (of primary generation) will be found fully developed and swimming 

 actively about. These will go through the whole series of vegetative phenomena we 

 have above described, and prepare a future generation of fixed cells, destined in their 

 turn to perpetuate indefinitely the existence of this species of plant. 



If, instead of immersing the immovable, dormant red cells in water, we simply keep 

 them in a state of dampness for some hours, they will generally divide into two fixed 

 cells (of secondary formation), these in turn will divide into four (of tertiary formation 

 and corresponding with the first generation of appendiculated gonidia) fixed, globular, 

 unappendaged cells ; then again into two (quaternary), then, last, into two (quinary) 

 others, and so on for a considerable period of time, which I have not followed out, but 

 which is, most likely dependant upon temperature and the quantity of water furnished. 

 These cells rarely attain above half the size of the primitive mother cell, they are 

 generally globular, of a reddish-brown color, and always destitute of flagelliform ap- 

 pendages. 



In the same way that the last swimming gonidia return to the form and nature of 

 the parent cell — so do the last generations of this abnormal form of Chlamidococcus 

 also produce larger cells of a thicker and darker color, which cannot be distinguished 



