T. H. BUFFHAM ON ANTHERIDIA. 3Q3 



les articles superieures des filaments articules dont sont com- 

 poses les tubercules se transforment en spores. Chaqiie article 

 laisse echapper nne spore globulense assez petite." My results 

 agree precisely witli this note with the exception of the form, 

 but as my specimens were not living the spore did not assume 

 the globose form on becoming freed. It has been suggested 

 that these bodies are pollinoids. But the usual course in the 

 production of pollinoids is here reversed ; for, instead of the 

 repeated division of cells into, finally, the smallest bodies, we 

 have in Ahnfeldtia the final body larger than the cell from which 

 it is developed. The size, moreover — though very small — is 

 many times that of the largest pollinoid known. The spore is, 

 in all probability, an asexual organ. 



The cystocarps (favellse) of Phimaria elegans Schmitz 

 {Ftilota sericea Harv.) are usually described as " naked or 

 involucrate," and the tetraspores as " sometimes polysporic." 

 From a study of fresh specimens (collected by Mr. Neeve at 

 the S. Foreland, Dec. 1892) I have been led to the conclusion 

 that there has been some confusion in these descriptions. The 

 organs studied are certainly the same as those figured by 

 Pringsheim {Beitriige zu Morphologie der Meeres-Algen, 1862, Taf. 

 8). His description of the figure is: " Ast mit nackten 

 Favellen." There is, however, in the recent specimen no 

 trichogyne nor procarp. Although the contents of the sporan- 

 gium in an early stage are divided into four it can readily be 

 distinguished from a true tetrasporangium as the manner of 

 division is rather cruciate than tripartite, and the colour is 

 paler. These sporangia continue to enlarge, and the segments 

 to divide, until at maturity there are 16 spores, irregularly 

 ovoid, 45-48 /x in length, and possessing a cell wall even before 

 discharge. Prof. W. G. Farlow informs me that he had already 

 come to the conclusion that these "naked favellge " are asexual 

 organs, and he frequently finds on specimens from the coasts 

 of New England some normal tetraspores on the same plants. 

 I have not found these on the same plants here. I may add 

 that I have never seen the true cystocarps naked, but always 

 involucrate ; and the tetraspores have always been of the 

 normal character. My opinion is, then, that Plumaria elegans 

 possesses neither " naked flavellse " nor " polysporic tetra- 

 spores ; " but that, in addition to the three kinds of reproduc- 



