242 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [march 



organs in a conceptacle or like the male organs themselves. She 

 considers this condition a proof that hairpits are derived from the 

 conceptacle (p. 174). 



The writer is strongly inclined to the belief that those forms 

 which are reported to possess hairpits only, with no evident con- 

 nection to reproductive organs, will, upon further investigation, 

 show closest relationship to reproductive activity, as already 

 proved in research upon forms of Ectocarpaceae, Laminariaceae. 

 Dictyotaceae, and Cutleriaceae. To the writer the resemblance 

 of Hydroclathrus (16) to Fucaceae, where it is reported that 

 alter shedding sporangia basal cells originate new growth, is star- 

 tling. In all the cases where similar sori are described, the origin 

 is constantly from modification of the external layer, even when the 

 writers themselves do not emphasize this fact. Bower's descrip- 

 tion of Halidrys and Ilimanthalia (6) seems to the writer good 

 evidence against his own theory, and the writer is inclined to the 

 opinion that with technique as it is developed today, Bower would 

 find the conceptacle of Fucus of quite the same origin as in Hali- 

 drys and Ilimanthalia. Even as it stands, several of Bower's 

 drawings (pi. 5, figs. 2, 5, n) show a possibility of interpretation 

 quite like that of the writer. 



Sections made by the writer of the same species of Sargassum 

 cast some doubt on the explanation offered by Simons (27). More- 

 over, sections of young tips of Fucus vesiculosus give almost identical 

 stages like those shown in her drawings of Sargassum (pi. 10. 

 figs. 1, 3, 5, 6, 12, 17, etc.). However, sections of later stages show 

 subsequent behavior to be quite different from that described by 

 Simons, and to be as described by the writer for Fucus. It remains 

 for further investigation to prove whether Simons is entirely 

 accurate in her description. It seems to the writer that what 

 Simons interprets as segments of the basal portion of the "initial" 

 are really the basal portions of original segments of the apical cell, 

 similar in nature and behavior to the "initial." 



As to the various terms suggested, Bower's ''neutral concep- 

 tacle" ("sterile conceptacle") and Barton's "vegetative con- 

 ceptacle" are equally unhappy; if the body is a true conceptacle 

 it cannot be "neutral," "sterile," or "vegetative." Since the 



