Notes . 
i53 
endochrome was escaping from it by jerks and with considerable 
force ; there was no constriction of the filament, and no formation of 
septum below the protoplasm which was thus ejected. The bodies 
thus escaping were not ciliated zoospores, but naked unciliated 
masses of coarsely granular protoplasm, coloured bright green by 
chlorophyll, and moved about in the water with a jerking motion. 
The escape took place in the afternoon, between noon and two p.m. ; 
in one instance several such bodies were ejected in succession from 
the same filament. After a time they came entirely to rest, rounded 
themselves off into a perfectly spherical form, and became invested 
with a very thin cell-wall of cellulose. About two-thirds of the 
‘ spores ’ or non-sexual propagation cells thus formed were coloured 
bright green by chlorophyll ; the rest consisted of colourless granular 
protoplasm, in which a Brownian movement of the particles was 
clearly seen. The phenomenon here described seems to me a very 
interesting intermediate one between the process of formation of 
zoospores by expulsion of the protoplasm, and that of ‘ brood-cells ' 
by the abstriction of the end of a filament. Hanstein (Einige Ziige 
aus der Biologie des Protoplasmas : in Bot. Abhandl. Vol. IV. 1882) 
states that when a filament of Vaucheria is injured, the portion 
between the injury and the apex of the filament forms itself into a 
cell by the secretion of a cellulose-septum above the injury, dead 
portions of protoplasm being during the process expelled into the 
water. Pie also saw the expulsion of balls of living protoplasm into 
the water as the result of injury to the filaments ; but did not observe 
that these became clothed with cellulose and assumed the function of 
spores and gonids. In the instances observed by me (which were 
rather numerous) there was nothing to show that the process was 
pathological. I hope, however, to be able to repeat the observations, 
and to trace the further history of the ‘ spores/ 
The filaments of Vaucheria are usually described as unseptated, 
except when about to form the sexual organs of reproduction, or 
when in the ‘ gongrosira ’ condition ; though Bates and Cooke have 
recorded occasional septation of the ordinary filaments. This observa- 
tion I am able to confirm in specimens of V. sessilis var. caespitosa 
obtained in September 1891, from a mill-pond at Waddon, near 
Croydon, Surrey. Several of the filaments examined were observed 
to be divided by septa, either at considerable intervals, or sometimes 
two or three very near together. These septa were more often 
