Hollo WAY. — Studies in the New Zealand Species of Lvcopodiura. 175 



Thus it may be assumed that the general type of stelar structure which 

 has been shown in the present paper to hold throughout the whole chain 

 of New Zealand forms holds also for the whole of the subgenus Urostachya, 

 and that all modifications of this type as seen in the different species of the 

 subgenus are merely the result of the particular size of each species and 

 of its habit of growth, which, as has been shown above, varies with the 

 environment. In his paper cited above Jones arrived at rather different 

 conclusions. He would classify all the species he examined, in so far as 

 their anatomy is concerned, into two groups, " the second containing a 

 number of epiphytic forms, and the first plants with horizontally-growing 

 stems, while species with erect stems may be included in either group " 

 (21, p. 31-32). He would link the group of L. Selago with the clavatum 

 type. My own conclusions, derived from a thorough study of the New 

 Zealand species, are that, using the sections of Pritzel's classification, which 

 are certainly more natural than those of Baker, there are three main strains 

 of stelar anatomy to be traced in the genus Lycopodium, the first of which is 

 characteristic of the sections Selago and Phlegmaria, the second characteristic 

 of the sections Inundata and Cernua, and the third of the section Clavata. 

 This, it seems to me, is in accord with Jones's own figures and descriptions 

 of the stelar anatomy of the species examined by him, and also goes hand 

 in hand with the other main characteristics of both sporophyte and 

 gametophyte. 



Prothallus, Sexual Organs, and Young Plant. 



In my previous paper already cited (16, p. 264) I have given a short 

 general description of the external features of the prothallus of L. Bil- 

 lardieri. Since this was written I have found in the neighbourhood of Hoki- 

 tika, Westland, an additional large number of specimens of the prothallus of 

 this species, also a very large number of prothalli of L. Billardieri var. gracile 

 from two or three localities in the same neighl)ourhood, and about a dozen 

 specimens of the prothallus of the Otira Gorge variety of L. varium. 

 Anticipating here what I hope to describe more fully in a further paper with 

 regard to these prothalli, I may say that they are all closely alike. The 

 majority of the specimens found of all three species show, on the whole, 

 longer processes than those figured in the above-named paper, figs. 1-6. 

 There is in each complete prothallus a more or less bulky central region 

 on which the sexual organs and paraphyses are formed, and from this arise 

 the long vegetative processes, which are richly covered with long rhizoids. 

 The ends of some of these processes sometimes also become more bulky and 

 bear antheridia. There is, however, a wide range of variability in the 

 general form of the prothallus, brought about by the greater or lesser 

 bulkiness of the central region, and also by the varying development of the 

 processes both as regards numbers and length. In all cases the first stages 

 in the development of the prothallus from the spore result in the immediate 

 forn\ation of a cone-shaped tissue-body, which by elongating and thickening 

 becomes the central portion of the mature prothallus, and on this the 

 processes arise adventitiously. Thus the first-formed region of the pro- 

 thallus of these three species conforms to the fundamental structure plan 

 of the Lycopodhim. prothallus, although the mature prothallus is variable 

 in form. In the case of all the three New Zealand species mentioned I 

 dissected out numerous detached prothalliai processes which were evidently 

 developing independently ; and also not a few of the mature prothalli bore 

 evidence of the fact that they had originated not directly from the spore, 

 but from such detached processes. 



