8 Mr. H.J. Carter on the Development of Gonidia 



But many of the gonidial cells are too small to contain the 

 circular disk, and we have still to account for the disappearance 

 of the irregular bodies of a faint yellow colour and granular 

 structure, which appear to form a much larger proportion of the 

 cell-contents than the circular disks. 



As the smallest of the gonidial cells, which may appear in the 

 internode, is but a very little larger than the single gonidium 

 which it contains, and others are sometimes present which may 

 contain fifty or more, it is obvious, that although the latter may 

 also contain a circular disk, there is no room for it in the 

 former. Nevertheless, the small gonidial cells containing one, 

 two, and three gonidia, as they vary in size from the 4300th to 

 the 2150th of an inch in diameter, are provided with a body pre- 

 cisely similar to the irregular ones mentioned, which is not in 

 the interior, but attached to or imbedded in their cell-wall, and 

 with the latter seems to comprise all the elements of which the 

 small gonidial cells are composed. In this way then we can 

 account for the disappearance of the irregular bodies. 



It is also not unusual to see in the older internodes, when their 

 contents are passing into gonidial cells, a few of the green disks 

 in situ, as well as loose in the cavity, and their disappearance 

 also calls for explanation, which would be difficult, if we did not 

 frequently see some of them actually in situ, under the form of 

 gonidia, among the other gTcen disks which have not passed into 

 this state or departed from their original linear arrangement. 

 Whether the gonidium has here taken the place of the green 

 disk, or whether it has been developed in its transparent vesicle, 

 I have not been able to determine; but in an old internode, 

 where the basal structure of the green layer has become more or 

 less hardened, the remains of the transparent vesicles may occa- 

 sionally be seen in their original position, while the green disks 

 have disappeared. In the fan-shaped groups of cells too, which 

 form part of the capsule of the globule, the red granules, which 

 are equivalent to the green disks, may frequently be seen at- 

 tached, like the irregular bodies, singly or in groups, to the 

 periphery of small gonidial cells which contain one or more 

 gonidia. This appears to be invariably the case at the dehiscence 

 of the globule, while the absence of circulation in these cells 

 from the commencement would indicate a corresponding scarcity 

 of the mucus-layer and its contents. With the exception of the 

 central cavities of the globule and nucule, I have not seen any 

 kind of cell in the species of Chara and Nitella, which I have 

 had under observation, that has not produced gonidia. 



Lastly, we have to account for the genuine starch-globules and 

 raphides, both of which may be seen lying among the gonidial 



