49 
IV. 
OX GROWTH 
AND REPRODUCTION IN THE LOWER FORMS OF 
VEGETABLE LIFE. 
By F. Kitton, Vice-President. 
Read 23rd September, 1870. 
“ The desire, which tends to know 
Tlie works of God, thereby to glorify 
The great Workniaster, leads to no excess 
That reaches blame, bnt rather merits praise 
The more it seems excess .... 
For wonderful indeed are all Ills works. 
Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all 
IIa<.l in remembrance always with delight.” — Milton. 
The object of my paper this evening is to give, as briefly as pos- 
sible, some idea of the nature of the vegetable cell, to trace it 
from its simplest state to the filamentous and frondose algae, thence 
to the higher forms of cryptogamic life, returning again to its exist- 
enpe as a simple cell, in those remarkable forms known as diatoms 
and desmids. 
It woidd he impossible in the time you would feel disposed to 
allow me, to enter into a minute description of genera and species. 
I shall, therefore, as far as time permits, endeavour to describe the 
remarkable phases connected with the growth and reproduction of 
the vegetable cell. 
To those unacquainted with the minute organisms requiring the 
aid of the microscope for their study, the remarkable phenomena 
I am about to describe may appear more like fiction than fact, but 
those here who, like myself, have used that instrument for many 
years, will confirm me in the truth of what I am about to state. 
E 
