36 



it has notliiiig whatever to do with the pollen grain. 

 The forms and varieties mentioned here and there 

 in the literature are of no special value. 



Diagnosis : 



Thallus, consisting of root and shoot. Root, a flat, hard, 

 reddish disc of irregular outline, made wp of very 

 regularly arranged cells of very uniform size and shape. 

 Shoot, upright, 15-17cm. high ; narrow or slightly 

 flattened stalk ; frond repeatedly forked and divided into 

 very much flattened and fhin lobes : internal conducting 

 cells elongated, loose, hyplial in younger parts ; more 

 external and small collecting cells leading into external 

 rows of assimilating cells, each containing one rhodo- 

 plastid. 



Xemathecia, slightly prominent dark red spots on young 

 lobes ; sporangia in rows ; tetraspores roundish, formed by 

 cruciate division ; mature December to March : in ger- 

 mination the spores divide into a number of cells before 

 increasing in bulk. 



Spermophores, small, narrow, white leaves on apical 

 marg'ins of frond ; antheridia formed bv two or three 

 outer cells of assimilating layer : spermatangia produce 

 one spermatium each. Mature October to December. 



Carpophores, small leaflets on frond ; procarpia just 

 inside assimilating layer ; basal cell, cutting off auxiliary 

 cell before fertilisation, two intermediate cells, carpo. 

 gonium and trichogyne ; sporogenous hypha of egg cell 

 fuses with cytoplasm of auxiliary cell, and numerous 

 sporogenous hyphie grow out towards the central starch- 

 laden cells of the carpophore, fusing with them and pro- 

 ducing carpospores ; cystocarps forming prominent dark 

 red patches on the frond ; 'carpospores roundish. Mature 

 December to March. 



