& 
422 MISS E. 8. BARTON ON NOTHEIA ANOMALA. 
Murray's Phycol. Mem. p. 39, pl. 12. fig. 3) and Durvillea 
(Laing, in Trans. N. Z. Inst. xviii. (1885) p. 308) have oogonia 
on branched hairs like antheridia. 
The oogonia of Notheia are rather larger than the antheridia 
and measure 75 by 204. They contain 8 oospheres, one at 
each end, and, between these, three groups of two each, the 
oospheres of the two outermost groups corresponding in position, 
while in the middle group the oospheres lie erossways. Thus if 
the two outermost groups show both oospheres side by side, the 
middle group shows only one, the second oosphere being hidden 
behind it (Pl. 13. fig. 10). 
The unbranched paraphyses are of the usual size and kind 
found in female conceptacles, and frequently grow from the 
same cell which bears the antheridium or oogonium, as mentioned 
above. 
One or two of the long eryptostoma-hairs sometimes persist 
during the time of fructification and may be seen among the 
ripe fruits (Pl. 13. fig. 8). 
The history of cryptostomata has aroused a certain amount of 
discussion and speculation ; and there is still much to learn 
about their origin and function from the more or less open pits 
of Enceeliacex to the flask-shaped cavities of Fucacee—all with 
their typical eryptostoma-hairs. But til now I believe it has 
not been found that all the cryptostomata of any Fucaceous 
alga gradually lose most of their hairs and come to bear repro- 
ductive organs and paraphyses—become, in fact, fertile concep- 
tacles. Miss Strudwick, who examined Hormosira at my request 
with regard to this point, tells me it is true also of that genus. 
This has been seen in Splachnidium (Murray’s Phycol. Mem. pt. i. 
1892, p. 5), but in that case the reproductive organs are spo- 
rangia, and the genus is therefore excluded from Fucaceæ. Of 
the three views concerning the origin of cryptostomata quoted 
by Mr. Murray (“On the Cryptostomata of Adenocystis, Alaria, 
and Saccorhiza," Phye. Mem. 1893, p. 59), my own, as to the 
phylogenetic independence of eryptostoma and coneeptacle, must, 
I fear, fall to the ground before this new light thrown on the 
subject by Notheia. 
Prof. Oltmanns's view “ that the fertile conceptacles are erypto- 
stomata which have in time come to bear organs of reproduction,” 
seems to meet the ease more satisfactorily, especially if we re- 
member how the sporangia of Adenocystis, Soranthera, Colpomenia, 
