344 



Prof. Morren on Infusoria in Plants. 



XL. — On the Existence of Infusoria in Plants. By Charles 

 Morren, M.D., Professor of Botany in the University of 

 Liege*. 



The perusal of the account of Professor Keeper's Researches 

 respecting the cells of Sphagnum and their pores brought to 

 my recollection some facts which I witnessed while studying 

 the natural history of our indigenous Algae, and which I think 

 it useful to make known at present, as they may clear up some 

 doubts which still exist in science. 



The labours of Roeper, to which I have just referred, show 

 that the cells of Sphagnum are sometimes furnished with 

 openings, which place their interior cavity in communication 

 with the air or water in which they are immersed. This 

 skilful observer satisfied himself, that when circumstances 

 are favourable, the Rotifer vulgaris, one of the Infusoria 

 whose organization has been explained by the researches of 

 Ehrenberg, exists in the cells of the Sphagnum obtusifolium. 

 This grew in the air in the middle of a turf-pit, but Roeper 

 observed its leaves in water ; he does not mention whether the 

 infusorial animal came from thence, or whether it was pre- 

 viously contained in the cavities of the cells. The general 

 purport of the paper seems to imply that these Rotiferi exist 

 in the cells of that part of the plant which was exposed to 

 the air ; and in this case, the presence of an animal so com- 

 plicated, living as a parasite in the cells of an utricular aerial 

 tissue, is a phaenomenon of the most curious kind in the phy- 

 siology of plants, and the more so as this animal is an aquatic 

 one. 



I recollected that the last year of my residence in Flanders, 

 I found at Everghem, near Ghent, the Vaucheria clavata, in 

 which I observed something similar. M. Unger had already 

 published the following details respecting this plant in 1828 : 

 " Beneath the emptied tubercules and at several points of the 

 principal stalk, at different angles, rather narrower branches are 

 produced ; these branches are generally very long, and greatly 

 exceed the principal stalk in length. At the end of ten or 

 twelve days after their development, there are seen, towards 

 one or other of their extremities, here and there, at differ- 

 ent distances from the summit, protuberances of a clavate 

 form, more or less regular, straight or slightly bent back ; 

 and others on the sides of the stalk, which have the form 



* From die Bulletin of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Brussels, vol. 

 vi. No. 4. 



t Annales des Sciences Naturelles, torn, x., November 1836, p. 314; 

 Flora, 1838, p. 17. 



