2 1 4 BritisJi Fiingi. 



figures and describes the hjpliae of tlie fungus as 

 liaving septav, and its supposed oogonia as containing 

 zoospores. The existence of these zoospores was 

 denied by Mr. Murray _, of the British Museum, in the 

 Academy for November 17, 1877. Still more 

 recently another example of the plant has been met 

 with at Halifax in the cabinet of Mr. Spencer. 

 Fragments of Lepidodendroid bark, the cells of which 

 are filled with fragmentary hyph^, but with few 

 traces of oogonia, also from Halifax, are in the 

 cabinet of Mr. Cash. I have had the opportunity of 

 examining all these specimens with the exception of 

 that in Carruthers' cabinet, which example he informs 

 me is a very imperfect one compared with those more 

 recently discovered. 



'' I have failed to find any traces of septa in the 

 hyphee of this plant, and I quite agree with Mr. 

 Murray in his opinion that no zoospores exist in any 

 of them. Some of the oogonia contain black coaly 

 matter, such as is frequently found in the ordinary 

 cellular tissues of carboniferous plants ; but I believe 

 this to be the result of infiltration, since I find it ex- 

 tended into the hollow tubes of some of the hyphee, 

 and is not confined to the oocronia themselves. 

 Having examined the actual specimen described and 

 figured by Mr. Smith with the aid of a Zeiss oil- 

 iramersion lens, I have no ^hesitation in arriving at the 

 same conclusion as Mr. Murray has done, viz. that its 

 oogonia contain no zoospores. The plant has been an 

 unicellular branching mj'celium with numerous dila- 

 tations on the branching hypha?, which dilatations seem 

 to have been oogonia. No septal division separates 



