HoLLOWAY. — Studies in the jSew Zealand Species of Lycopodium. 211 



fungal coils (figs. 31, 32). Throughout the greater portion of these resting 

 processes the coils have given place to the clusters of spores, as takes place 

 also in the other parts of the prothallus. 



I have not been able to trace how the spores are formed, or even 

 what is their exact nature. It seems unlikely that they are used up by 

 the developing prothallus as food, for they are more thickly, present in the 

 oldest parts of the prothallus than elsewhere. Nor have I observed the 

 presence of oil globules in the fungal tissues, which is so well known a 

 feature in the prothalli of the clavatum and complanatum types. Probably 

 the prothallus benefits from the fungus only when the latter is in the form 

 of hyphal coils, these coils being in direct connection with the external 

 mycelium. The rapid growth in length of the prothallus and its branches 

 accounts for there being no storing-up of food material in any of its 

 vegetative parts. Even in the bulky generative region I have not been 

 able to discover the presence of starch, although it is possible that it may 

 there be present at certain stages in the development of the sexual organs 

 or young plant, but there is abundant protoplasm and the nuclei are very 

 large in the cells around the growing apex. The younger regions of the 

 lateral branches are probably self-nourishing, in this matter being quite 

 independent of the older parts of the prothallus. In fact, isolated branches 

 or portion of branches are capable of continued growth, this being a very 

 common method of propagation in these epiphytic species. The central 

 conducting-strand in the branches functions in the translocation of food 

 material from the younger regions of the branches down into the main 

 prothallial body, the food being there needed in the forward generative 

 region. 



Miss Edgerley figures the clusters of spore-like bodies, stating that she 

 found them very commonly in L. Billardieri, but that she observed no 

 nucleated vesicles (4, p. 109). 



Comparison oj L. Selago and L. Billardieri (cfec). 



In his description of the prothalli of L. Selago, Bruchmann (1, pp. 87 

 et seq.) shows that the more compact surface-growing forms which are 

 found in this species possess a ring-like marginal meristem. This bears a 

 close resemblance to that which is found in the prothallus of the clavatum 

 and complanatum. types. The elongated prothalli of L. Selago are found 

 in deeper soil, and possess, according to Bruchmann, an erect position 

 of growth, as if striving to reach the surface. Bruchmann derives the 

 peculiar growth of the latter from the ring-like marginal growth of the 

 former, stating that the apparently apical meristem of the elongated forms 

 represents a part of the margin which has grown forward. It will be 

 necessary to compare this manner of elongated growth with that which 

 takes place in the prothalli belonging to the Phlegmaria section. 



The prothallus of both L. Selago and L. Billardieri (&c.) starts with the 

 cone form, the cone being from the first richly occupied by the fungus. 

 Judging from the arrangement of cells at the lowest part of the .cone, 

 growth at first takes place from a single apical cell, but this probably 

 soon gives place to a group of apical meristematic cells. The girth of 

 the cone is also probably increased by cell-divisions taking place in all the 

 body-cells stimulated by the presence of the fungus. From this point- 

 onwards the further growth of the protl alius could either result in the 

 extension of the cone form or the prothallus could pass out of the cone form 

 into an elongated, cylindrical form. The first of these methods seems to 



