OF CHIONYPHE CARTERI. 141 
entertained on the subject in the ‘Introduction to Cryptogamic 
Botany,’ p. 10. 
On every account, therefore, it was a matter of some interest 
to watch, if possible, the development of the Chionyphe. As soon, 
then, as the weather was sufficiently warm in the spring of 1863, 
minute fragments of my specimens were placed upon thick rice- 
paste, and each was covered with a bell-glass to prevent any 
accession of fresh spores from without. Unfortunately, however, 
our native moulds rapidly made their appearance in great abun- 
dance, and it was only after they had arrived at perfection that 
the pink patches of the Chionyphe became conspicuous, and these 
were so intermixed with the strangers that it was very difficult 
to follow out their development; added to which the rice-paste 
seemed to be so exhausted by the first-formed moulds, that the 
vegetation of the Chionyphe ceased before the greater part of the 
fruit was perfected. As far, however, as my observations go, they 
confirm Mr. Carter’s remarks. There were two kinds of Hy- 
phasma, the one consisting of irregular branched and anasto- 
mosing, sparingly-jointed threads, which seemed to give rise to 
the Mucorioid fruit; the other of straight Confervoid threads 
(which appear to be identical with those figured by Mr. Carter), 
in whose articulations there was a minute nucleus at the upper 
part, while in the terminal articulation there were sometimes 
two, though I was not able to verify this minute character. There 
were the same cysts of the second order in some of the mother 
cysts, and there were spores germinating in situ, though these 
appeared to me elliptic rather than globose. 
Though, however, I did not see all that Mr. Carter has figured, 
a most curious matter, in addition, was exhibited by the straight 
threads, which point to another curious analogy with certain 
Ales, 
The portion of the protoplasm or contents of the cells in 
which Mr. Carter observed the nucleus above mentioned to be 
immersed soon separated from the rest, first presenting a cask- 
shaped mass, surrounded or not with a distinct membrane, and 
then becoming elliptic or subglobose. A large nucleus was ob- 
served in many of these masses, but this appeared to be frequently 
replaced by an indefinite number of smaller bodies. After a time 
a little papilla is formed on one side exactly as in the fructifying 
joints of Zygnema, which gradually bulges out, the mass soon con- 
forming itself more or less to its enlarged walls. In a single case 
only I witnessed the junction with another thread (Pl. X. fig. 6), 
