LEPTOLEC.NMA 157 



See also Massee ('91), pi. 5. figs- 102-104. 



Dictyuchus carpophorus Zopf. Beitriige z. Phys. u. Morpli. n. Organ- 



ismen 3: 48, pis. 2 and 3. 1893. 



This species, in spite of much elaborate description, is doubtfully 

 distinct from D. monosponis. It is supposed to differ in the numerous 

 abnormal-looking lateral outgrowths on the hyphae and the eccentric 

 eggs in oogonia which are often thickly enwrapped with antheridia. 

 As shown, the eggs are what we are calling eccentric, with a large oil 

 drop in the protoplasm, and there is no evidence that the so-called 

 centric eggs of D. monosponis are not of similar structure. 



Dictyuchus polysporus Lindstedt. Synopsis d. Saprol., p. 19, pi. 2, figs. 



1-3; pi. 3, figs. 1-7. 1872. 



This species has not been found since first reported and one does 

 not feel quite convinced of its %-alidity. Fischer suggests that Lind- 

 stedt may ha\e had mixed material before him. The sporangia look 

 exactly like those of our D. sterile and like Leitgeb's figures of D. vwno- 

 sporus, but the antheridia are said to be androgynous and the oogonia 

 have numerous eggs, which characters are in sharp contrast to the di- 

 clinous antheridia and single-egged oogonia of all the other species. 



The species may be concisely defined thus: 



Growth delicate, the threads only up to J4 cm. long. Sporangia 

 shorter than in D. monosponis, multiplying by sympodial branching as 

 in Achlya. Oogonia irregularly arranged, terminal or intercalary, single 

 or several in a row, of various shapes, spherical or ovate or long flask- 

 shaped; wall smooth, without pits. Antheridia androgynous, up to 

 several on an oogonium or absent on some of them,* short clavate with 

 the side attached to the oogonium, borne on usually simple branches of 

 rather definite length which spring mostly from main hyphae which 

 bear oogonia; fertilizing tubes present. Eggs 2-20 in an oogonium, 

 25-27^ thick. 



LEPTOLEGXIA deBary, 1888, p. 609. 



Hyphae long and delicate, sparingly branched. Sporangia long, 

 apical, cylindrical, of the same size as the hyphae, at times multiplied 

 by growth through empty ones, rarely branched. Spores formed in a 

 single row, elongated on emerging, then changing their form to pip- 

 shaped and swarming with two apical cilia, encysting and swimming 



* Lindstedt does not mention their absence on some oogonia, but out of eight of his 

 figures that show oogonia, five are without antheridia 



