ETHEL SARA BARTON ON CHNOOSPORA FASTIGIATA. 507 
On the Fruit of Chnoospora fastigiata, J. Ac. By Erner Sara 
Barron. (Communicated by Gonaz Murray, F.R.S., F.L.S.) 
[Read 30th June, 1898.] 
(Piare 28.) 
Tux genus Chnoospora was founded by Prof. J. G. Agardh on 
the two species C. pacifica and C. atlantica in * Nya Alger från 
Mexico” (Ofversigt K. Vet.-Akad. Förhandl., Are. iv., 1847, p. 7), 
where the fruit is described * an in verrucis lateralibus, e cellulis 
radiantibus constitutis, demum evoluti? Genus Sporochnoideum, 
Carpomitre proximum." 
A year later the same author unites C. pacifica and C. atlantica 
under the name C. fastigiata, and the fruits are described with 
more detail (Spec. Gen. et Ord. Fucoid. 1848, p. 171). They 
are said to consist of “ sporiferous threads" growing in patches 
in the centre of the thallus, surrounded and protected by “a 
series of branched, long-jointed sterile threads." These * sterile 
threads " are also said to be coherent and covered by a cuticle, 
in specimens which have been dried and moistened again. An 
analogy is drawn between this form of fruiting tissue and that 
of Arthrocladia, and Chnoospora is placed next to that genus in 
Sporochnoidee. Dictyota and Carpomitra are also mentioned as 
bearing a superficial resemblance to Chnoospora. 
Dr. Kjellman (Engler and Prantl, Natürl. Pflanzenfam. Teil i. 
Abt. 2, p. 289) places Chnoospora among the genera of Phao- 
phycee which are “ doubtful, uncertain, or insufficiently known ;” 
and Dr. de Toni (Syll. Algarum, vol. iii. Fueoidez, 1895, p. 464) 
leaves it as a “ genus incerte sedis” next to Arthrocladia in 
Arthrocladiacee. . 
In the British Museum Herbarium Chnoospora fastigiata is 
well represented both in dried and in spirit material. Some 
good specimens of the plant were sent over in spit by Mr. 
Elliot from St. Vincent, in a collection of algw made by him in 
the West Indies in 1892. Examination soon showed the pre- 
sence of cryptostomata growing on the flattened part of the 
slightly compressed thallus, resembling those which are found 
in Soranthera, Hydroclathrus, and Colpomenia. The finding of 
these bodies, where they had hitherto been unsuspected, raised 
the hope of throwing some light on the development of the fruit 
and the true position of the genus. A series of sections was 
