104? LIFE PHENOMENA : SOME NOTES ON NITELLA, ETC. 
the August 25th number of Nature. To those interested in 
biological research his remarks must be of the first interest, 
for they give so clear and so eminently modernised an expose 
of those more recent remarkable observations which have been 
deduced from the study of protoplasm, as seen in the animal 
and vegetable kingdoms ; and to those who have not as yet 
taken much interest in these life observations, may I be per¬ 
mitted to state I feel surely confident his observations, if 
read, would stir up a deep incentive in their minds to become 
fully acquainted with the remarkable literature of so interest¬ 
ing a subject. The phenomena which may be here noticed 
lie, undoubtedly, at the very root basis of all biological 
research, and to be able to observe these phenomena, and to 
make their intimate acquaintance, will amply repay any 
time spent in so doing, and will give such healthful and 
lucid views of “ what constitutes life,” which it would be 
otherwise, by any other means at our hands, impossible to 
obtain. 
Professor Allman, in the course of his remarks, refers to 
Nitella, among others, as a lower vegetable form, 'where 
some rather interesting life phenomena may be observed ; the 
whole history of cell life may be observed here, nutrition, 
and growth, and movement, and reproduction, and those 
other characteristic life changes which are always present 
where life is present, may all be observed here. These may 
not always—indeed, rarely are—to be observed in animal or 
vegetable cell life. The phenomena may be present, but 
not always visible to the eye. Here, in Nitella, they may all 
be observed, and with much marked clearness, showing, 
simply, yet very decidedly, how needful it is that the animal 
and vegetable kingdoms alike should both equally demand 
our careful and earnest study. 
Nitella belongs to the Characese group of plants—the 
Chara order; it is a simple, flowerless, leaflless water plant, 
a frequenter of our ponds and running streams, composed of 
a distinct stem, branching off* in a whorled manner, sending 
off at definite points probably eight or ten branches, more or 
less, these different branchings themselves repeating or not 
repeating this same process. Nitella is thus a very simple 
plant, consisting simply of a distinct stem, which gives off 
similar stem-like branches itself. The stem stalks of Nitella, 
if examined under a £ microscopic objective, will be found 
to be composed simply of very large, long, tubular-looking 
cells, arranged singly, not placed side by side, but one fol¬ 
lowing the other, a concave end of one cell meeting a convex 
end of another. It encloses within its cellulose wall certain 
