E ETHEL SARA BARTON ON THE 
' to be formed as the morphological equivalent of an assimilative 
iiament. In the division including Enceliacee the sporangia 
arise from the epidermal cells. Both these modes of develop- 
ment are represented in Soranthera. Again, the vegetative 
growth of Chordariacee is described as terminal or subterminal, 
that of Enceliacee as intercalary. Now in Soranthera growth 
evidently takes place in young plants from the ultimate cell of 
the radiating filaments. This cell bears the assimilative filaments 
and the plurilocular sporangia, and eventually, after the shedding 
of these, it forms the epidermal layer which subdivides to keep 
pace with the further growth of the plant. The presence, too, 
of eryptostomata points to terminal rather than intercalary 
growth. The mode of development of Soranthera, therefore, 
comes athwart the lines of. demareation hitherto laid down for 
the Nat. Orders Chordariacee and Enceliacee. It can be 
placed definitely neither in the one nor the other, and until our 
knowledge of the life-history of the other genera in these two 
Orders is more complete it will be wiser to refrain from placing 
 Soranthera anywhere. 
It is interesting to find in Soranthera another instance of 3 
genus, and one of such unsettled position, producing fruits m 
connection with eryptostomata. That the typical hairs are in 5° 
many cases associated with reproductive bodies, either in or out 
of eryptostomata, points to there being more than a chance eon" 
nection between them. No satisfactory theory has yet been 
suggested to explain this, and until the function of these hairs 
is better understood it is useless to theorize. Nu 
. Prof. Wille (Beitr. z. Physiol. Anat. der Lamina 
Christiania, 1897, p. 36) leans to the hypothesis set fore ; 
Prof. Reinke (“ Beitr. z. Kenntniss der Tange,” Pringsh. 7a 4 
vol. x. p. 317) that these hairs are for the taking up of ili 
compounds from the sea-water, à process which would be d 4 
tated by their specially thin outer cell-walls. The conten B 
the young hairs appear in any case to differ from those M take 
surrounding tissue; they are richer and in stained ann 
a different colour. This has also been noticed by Prof. a this, 
One of the main points of interest in S. ulvoidea les } sitism 
that it adds another to the few known instances of Pe blished 
among the Pheophycee. Hitherto the only clearly small alg? 
parasitié species are Notheia anomala in Fucacee, and $ 
