THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE TILOPTEEIDACE^. 179 



oog.^ an.). The plant in question was about two inches 

 long, and as far as one could judge by naked-eye-characters, 

 indistinguishable from an ordinary small specimen of 

 Haplospora. Oogonia and sporangia were present in abun- 

 dance, but the antheridia were considerably less numerous. 

 Further, where the antheridia occur most abundantly the 

 sporangia are relatively less numerous than elsewhere, and 

 likewise less mature, at the most having two nuclei ; whilst 

 on other parts they were found in the tetra-nucleate con- 

 dition (Fig. 8, the lower of the two sporangia marked sp.)- 



This specimen might, therefore, with almost equal pro- 

 priety, be looked upon as a sexual plant, bearing, excep- 

 tionally, non-sexual sporangia or vice versa. The vegetative 

 part is histologically indistinguishable from that of Sca- 

 phospora speciosa, or Haplospora globosa, and, since in its 

 reproductive organs it unites the characters of these two 

 supposed distinct species, there is now no room to doubt 

 that Haplospora glohosa Kjellm., and Scapliospora speciosa 

 Kjellm. are not only generically, but specifically identical, 

 these names having been applied to different conditions of 

 the same plant. The credit of the first recognition of this 

 is due to Reinke as already indicated. 



Reinke's supposition seemed so reasonable to the writer 

 that drawings of young plants of Scaphospova and Haplo- 

 spora were made (Figs. 1 and 2) and exhibited at a meeting 

 of the Linnean Society, 21st June, 1894, and this view 

 strongly advocated, although at that time no actual con- 

 firmation had been obtained. The object of the figures was 

 to show that there was no essential difference of habit 

 in the two plants, the apparent difference in Kjellman's 

 description being due simply to the modifying effect of 

 the mature reproductive bodies on the external morphology. 

 Such modification is not uncommon, especially among alg^e, 



