Branch III— CARPOPHYTA. 



Multicolhilar plants; iilaut-boily, for tho most part, a i>areiichymatous tissue-aggre- 

 gate, with or without clilorophyll; vegetative cells typically unmodilied, cylindrical, or 

 hexagonal; reproduction sexual and asexual; asexual reproductiou iu the chlorophyll 

 series chielly liy means of tetraspores, in the hysterophyiic series by means of stylospores, 

 chlamydosiiores, and coiiidia proper; sexual reproduction by means of carpo_i,'oues and 

 antherids, resulting iu the formation of a sporocarp. 



Chiefly marine holophytos, or terrestrial hysterophytes. Plant body an undiffer- 

 entiated aggregate of parenchyma-cells, forming a tissue mass, except in the Perispor- 

 iaccae, Charophi/ceae and the unicellular Sacchnroiai/cetes. Chlorophyll is absent in 

 most of the orders. When present, it is often more or less masked by other substances, 

 as the red and purple coloring matters of the Rhotlophijccac and the lime incrustation of 

 the Cliaroplu/vcdc. Asexual reproduction is typical of but two classes, Ascomi/cefes and 

 Rhodnplii/cc(ie. In the former, it results by means of conidia, stylospores, and, more 

 rarely, by chlamydospores; in the latter uniformly by means of tetraspores. The fertili- 

 zation of the carpogone by the contents of the antherid, typically through the medium of 

 a trichogyne, produces a so-called sporocarp, which is characteristic of the branch. In the 

 Charophyceac, however, the fertilization does not result in the formation of a sporocarp. 

 In the hysterophytes, moreover, sexuality decreases with the distance from the point of 

 derivation of the group until it finally disappears, but at the same time without a corres- 

 ponding modification in the production of the sporocarp. 



The relationships of the carpophytes are varied, and their inter-relations somewhat 

 obscure. Through the liolophytic series they connect in a nearly straight line, the Phyc- 

 ophytes with the Bryophytes, notwithstanding the evident break at the beginning of the 

 series. On the other hand the hysterophytic series, which ends blindly at the upper end, 

 probably falls into two natural divisions, one of which, represented by the Ascoimjcetes 

 and Basidiomycetes, has perhaps had its origin in or near the Peronosporaceac, while the 

 other represented by the Laboulhenkicene, etc., has its derivation and relationship still 

 involved iu great obscurity. 



Class III— COLEOCHAETEAE. 



Small green plants grovvfing attached to submerged stems and leaves; thallus com- 

 posed of branched rows of cells more or less united laterally into a flat, irregular or cir- 

 cular disk. Reproduction by sexually produced carpospores and asexual swarm-spores 

 (zoogonidia). 



The terminal cell of a branch which is to produce a carpospore swells, and the upper 

 portion elongates into a narrow tubular process (trichogyne) which opens at the top 

 At the same time antherids develop from certain cells as small flask-shaped outgrowths, 

 usually three or four from a cell. Each antherid thus formed cuts off from the 

 mother-cell by a transverse wall, and the contents form a single biciliate antherozoid, 

 which escapes and finds its way to the female coll, probably through the trichogyne. 

 After fertilization, the female cell forms a wall around itself inside the old coll- wall, and 

 the whole becomes enveloped by a coating of cells which grows up from below, thus 

 forming a sporocarp with a single carpospore. 



