149 



Shortly after my arrival at Buitenzorg in March, 1206, 

 finding (). moluccamiin very common, search was made at once 

 for the pvothallia. Many small plants were found, which it 

 was hoped might be attached to prothallia, but in nearly all 

 cases these were found to be growing from fragments of roots, 

 so common a phenomenon in most species of Ophioglossum. 

 Diligent search in various parts of the garden, however, finally 

 resulted in the discovery of a small numljer of prothallia, but 

 these were all old and insufficient for showing clearly the 

 character of the reproductive organs. Finally, however, on 

 April 8th, between forty and fifty were found together, and 

 although most of these had the sporophyte already developed, 

 and no young reproductive organs present, still a small number 

 of younger ones were secured, and these made it possible to 

 determine the more important characters of the sexual organs. 

 The young sporophytes were growing under a tree near the 

 avenue of Ficus, the "Waringin Allee" in the park adjoining 

 the botanical garden. A number of very small plants were 

 seen growing in a sort of shallow basin enclosed by the roots 

 of the tree, and on taking up some of these the attached 

 gametophyte was discovered. Careful search through the earth 

 revealed a number of prothallia, about a half dozen of wdiich 

 were still unfertilized, and these bore archegonia and anthe- 

 ridia. The prothallia were very small — much smaller than 

 the prothallia of 0. peduiiculosuin, as figured by Mettenius. but 

 otherwise they closely resembled them. They were also much 

 smaller than the prothallia of 0. vulgatum. described by Bruch- 

 MANN. The basin-like space between the roots of the tree 

 would be likely to hold water after heavy rain, and it is 

 likely that this facilitates the germination of the spores, as in 

 artificial cultures, since we have seen these germinated more 

 readily w^hen placed in water than those simply placed on 

 moist earth. Most of these prothallia, as already stated, were 

 very small, and were not buried very deeply — probably not 

 more than 3 centimeters and sometimes less. 



The prothallia are usually slender bodies, from '/a to 1 cen- 



