a heat equal or even much superior to that 

 of boiline-water for some time without 

 losing their vitality ; therefore the simple 

 boiling of water is not sufficient, even 

 should care be taken to exclude the out- 

 ward air, or to prevent its containing re- 

 productive germs by passing it through a 

 furnace. Concentrated sulphuric acid has 

 sometimes been used for the same pur- 

 pose, but this plan is subject to error, as, 

 whatever may be the case with germs 

 which may be present on the outside of a 

 bubble passing through the acid, it does 

 not follow that those in the middle of the 

 bubble should be killed. The existence of 

 intestinal worms even in infants in the 

 womb, and that in situations in which it 

 seemed impossible that there could be any 

 access from without, was once regarded as 

 decisive on the question ; but the discove- 

 ries of Tan Beneden and others have set 

 this at rest, except with the sworn advo- 

 cates of Heterogenesis, who deny theirdoc- 

 trine with a sneer at their small preten- 

 sions to credit, inasmuch as they are not 

 Frenchmen. No observations, indeed, re- 

 quire greater caution and nicety than those 

 which are requisite to establish or disprove 

 the doctrine, and there is no subject which 

 has less excuse for anything like dogma- 

 tism. In trustworthy hands the proof of 

 Heterogenesis has always failed, and true 

 philosophy will not readily adopt a theory 

 which is a priori opposed by such a mul- 

 titude of facts. 



A parting observation may be offered 

 respecting organisable lymph in animals, 

 or protoplasm in plants. Undoubtedly 

 new living cells and structures seem to be 

 generated in such substances without any 

 immediate connection with the contiguous 

 tissues. It must, however, be remembered 

 that such matters can only generate new 

 tissues or organs when still endowed with 

 life and in contact with living tissues. 

 The serum of blood, for instance, when 

 removed from its fountain (.though kept 

 at the proper temperature;, will never ge- 

 nerate blood-globules, and other similar 

 examples might be adduced. [M. J. JB.] 



SPOONWORT. Cochlearia officinalis. 



SPORANGIOLUM. A case containing 

 sporidia. 



SPORAXGIOPHOROL The axis or 

 columella on which are borne the spore- 

 cases of some ferns. 



SPORANGIUM. A word used in crypto- 

 gams to denote the case in which the 

 spores are formed. In ferns it is applied 

 to the little cysts with their elastic 

 ring ; in pseudoferns to the organs imme- 

 diately containing the spores, whether 

 naked or contained in a common recep- 

 tacle; in mosses to the urn-shaped bodies 

 which are often called capsules and thecse. 

 Amongst algas lichens and fungi it is 

 seldom used in a general sense. In the 

 latter it is sometimes applied to asci when 

 large and pear-shaped as in truffles, to the 

 spore-bearing vesicles of moulds, or to the 



lens-shaped bodies contained in the recep- 

 tacles of plants like Nidularia, though they 

 are certainly not of the same nature as <or 

 in scientific language homologous with) 

 the organs just mentioned. [M. J. B.] 



SPORE. As the reproductive bodies 

 of cryptogams do not contain an embryo, 

 but are merely cellular, consisting of one 

 or more cells variously combined together, 

 | they are called spores to distinguish them 

 I from true seeds. Amongst Fungi the 

 name is restricted to those reproductive 

 ' bodies which are produced either singly., or 

 j in little chains at the tips of the fruit- 

 bearing threads. In many cases, however, 

 i these bodies are generated within cells or 

 j asci, and they are then for distinction's 

 sake termed sporidia. It is however de- 

 I sirable that the word spore should be 

 } used in the more general sense as opposed 

 I to seed, the grand distinction between 

 cryptogams and phsenogams consisting in 

 the different nature of their mode of re- 

 production. The spores of acrogens are 

 produced mostly in mother-cells four 

 I together, after the manner of pollen-grains 

 ; —often however retaining their original 

 form, so that when mature they have one 

 1 spherical and three plain sides. In a few 

 genera, however, there is only a single 

 j spore in each sporangium. In Alga the 

 j spores are sometimes, as iiiDesmiospermece. 

 I nothing more than the transformed joints 

 I of certain threads ; sometimes they appear, 

 as in most if not all Gongylospermece, to be 

 formed from the contents of a cell, as in 

 the ascigerous Fungi, sometimes they are 

 endowed with active motion like animals, 

 and are ther. called Zoospores. In lichens 

 they are of the same nature as the sporidia 

 of Fungi. The word sporules is sometimes 

 used generally in the sense of spores, 

 sometimes to denote distinct granules 

 within spores. These are occasionally 

 called sporidiola. 



Spores germinate either by elongation of 

 some particular part, and subsequent cell- 

 division, or by cell-division without any 

 protrusion of a thread or membranous ex- 

 pansion. In Myxogastres they germinate 

 sometimes after the fashion of other 

 Fungi, but sometimes the outer case is 

 ruptured, and a body appears with the 

 attributes of some of the lower Infusoria, 

 which, apparently without any cellular 

 division, produces the semigelatinous my- 

 celium peculiar to those Fungi. [M. J. B.] 



SPORE-CASE. The immediate covering 

 of the spores of cryptogams. 



SPORENDONEMA. A genus of Fungi 

 proposed at first on erroneous characters, 

 of which one supposed species, which 

 forms scarlet masses on decayed cheese, 

 differs from Torula only in its bright 

 colour. S. Muscce occurs in flies in autumn, 

 oozing out between the rings of the abdo- 

 men, and at length killing them. The 

 species requires further study, and Will 

 probably be traced to some higher stage of 

 development. The flies which are attacked 

 by it before death fasten themselves bv 

 their proboscis to leaves or other sub- 



