

X. 



ON THE CRYPTOSTOMATA OF ADENO- 

 CYSTIS, ALARIA AND SACCORHIZA. 



THE bodies called ' fasergriibchen,' ' cryptostomata,' ' cryptes piliferes," 

 ' sterile,' ' neutral,' and ' vegetative conceptacles ' which occur somewhat 

 capriciously among the Phceophycea have been the subject of so much 

 speculation that any new attempt to explain their nature and significance 

 must be made on fresh evidence to have any claim on attention. While 

 submitting such evidence, I do not now propose to set forth any conclusive 

 argument, but to arrange old and new facts in such a fashion as to suggest 

 a way out of the difficulties. 



The development of cryptostomata in the Fncacece has been lucidly 

 described, first, by Prof. Bower* in his paper on the development 

 of the conceptacle in Fucacetz. Valiante-f- and Oltmanns + have both 

 extended his observations ; and I find in a paper by Miss Barton 

 on Turbinaria an additional contribution to the subject. Prof. Bower 

 regards them as incomplete sexual conceptacles, a view which has 

 the advantage of definiteness, and one it would be hard to controvert ; 

 Oltmanns thinks that the fertile conceptacles are cryptostomata which 

 have in time come to bear organs of reproduction ; while Miss Barton puts 



* Quart. Journ. After. Sci., xx. 



t Fauna und Flora des Golfes v. NeapeL Leipzig, 1883. 



\ Bibliotheca Botanica, heft 14. 



Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. iii., part 5. 



59 



