5 6 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [January 



of antheridia, archegonia, and embryos are very clearly described. 

 Ten years later this account was supplemented by a very complete 

 description of L. complanatum. Although Bruchmann (15) had 

 made repeated efforts to germinate the spores of various species, he 

 met only the failures which had discouraged other botanists; but 

 finally his perseverance was rewarded and he was able to give a 

 complete account of the germination and early development of 

 L. clavatum, L. annotinum, and L. Selago. The surprising feature 

 is the long-delayed germination. The spores of L. Selago germi- 

 nated in 3-5 years, and the development of antheridia and arche- 

 gonia was complete in 6-S years; L. clavatum and L. annotinum 

 were even slower, germinating in 6-7 years and requiring 12-15 

 years to complete the development of antheridia and archegonia. 

 Bruchmann suggests that possibly the periods might be shortened 

 artificially if the proper stimuli could be discovered. All the species 

 reported in Bruchmann's various papers are subterranean and 

 saprophytic, but the spores germinate independently and develop 

 to the 4 or 5-cell stage, and at this stage the fungus must enter or 

 there will be no further development. 



L. salakcnsc, which Treub (ii) succeeded in keeping in cultures 

 throughout the whole life history, is green, aerial, has no fungus, 

 and germination takes place in a few days. L. cernuum is also 

 aerial and green and germinates with equal promptness, but it does 

 not develop beyond the primary tubercle stages unless the fungus 

 enters. L. inundatum in DeBary's cultures developed to an early 

 primary tubercle stage with some chlorophyll and then died. The 

 subsequent work of Goebel (10), who found prothallia growing 

 naturally, proved that this species also has an aerial, green prothal- 

 lium with an endophytic fungus. In L. cernuum and L. inundatum, 

 however, the fungus infection is much slighter than in the sapro- 

 phytic species. 



So far as I have been able to determine, there is only one paper 

 which makes any mention of the prothallia of New Zealand species 

 of Lyco podium, and this paper by Holloway (16) deals primarily 

 with the anatomy of the sporophyte. The investigation, both in 

 the field and in the laboratory, is of such high grade that we hope 

 Holloway will sometime give us an extended account of the pro- 



