NOTES ON THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 

 OF OLIVE-BROWN SEAWEEDS. 



THERE has been a good deal of speculation in recent 

 phycological literature on the subject of the con- 

 ceptacles and the cryptostomata (Fasergriibchen), or sterile 

 or neutral conceptacles, as they are variously called, which 

 occur in certain orders of olive-brown seaweeds. In the 

 discussion of this subject, and the search for explanations 

 of the puzzles it freely offers, there has been shown a dis- 

 position to restrict the evidence and the argument to the 

 comparison of development of these bodies in the different 

 orders in which they occur. It would be out of place and 

 mischievous to disparage this method and to seek to detract 

 in the least from its value, but the exclusive employment 

 of it reminds one of the attitude of the observer who 

 sought to explain the movements of a semaphore by as- 

 signing them to the caprice of the signalman without 

 reference to any trains that might happen to be running. 

 The things themselves have been exhaustively described 

 and compared, and the questions have been asked : ( i ) Are 

 the cryptostomata abortive conceptacles? (2) are they the 

 older of the two, and have they come in time to bear re- 

 productive organs ? Authors have been found to answer 

 both these questions with yes or no, while a third takes the 

 view that they are " of equal antiquity, and that neither is the 

 outcome of the other". Where these answers are not mere 

 guesses, they are founded on a cursory glance at the neigh- 

 bouring forms, or on speculations as to possibilities in 

 the ancestors of the Fucacece and Laminariacece. Since 

 none of these ancestors are known to us, and do not appear 

 to be likely to meet the delighted eye of the botanist, at all 

 events in a condition fit for the microtome, it is probably 

 more likely to be fruitful if we extend the area of our 

 inquiry among the living forms more or less related to 

 those discussed. To vex ourselves about ancestral forms 

 in this case is very much like crying for the moon. 



