208 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



mucilage and formed smaller colonies or where they were filamentous, 

 the protonema branches became long and filamentous with long or 

 short cells, and surrouuded or intertwined with the algae. During 

 examination of the slides, one is often reminded of the condition in 

 Lichens, with the fungus filaments coiling round big algal cells. 

 This condition is much more striking in the case of the rhizoidal 

 branches of the young moss plants. In the protonemal masses, the 

 similarity is brought out especially, where the cells in contact with 

 the algae are beaded and short as in some lichens. In the mass of 

 algae in the vicinity of the branches, it is common to meet with both 

 decaying and healthy algal cells and those which have'partly or fully 

 lost their cell-contents. 



Germinating Gemmae. — The Gemmae, when detached from 

 the plant, are club-shaped and 3 or 4 cells long. The first sign of 

 germination is the putting forth of a rhizoidal cell from the basal end. 

 This is followed or in some cases preceded by an oblique division of 

 the apical cell. The rhizoidal cell grows quickly into a filam9nt and 

 extends into the algal masses, in the same manner as that described 

 for the protonema branches though not to the same extent in the 

 early stages. (Fig. 2.) 



The Young Moss Plant.— In the young moss plants, when 

 the mud attached to the rhizoids is carefully washed out, it is found 

 that the main rhizoids have dark clots hanging from their ends. 

 These clots, when repeatedly crushed lightly under the cover slip and 

 washed or when treated with dilute HCl, show masses of algae 

 attached to the tips of the main rhizoidal branches. (Fig. 1.) The 

 algae are again of all the three kinds mentioned above, namely, big soft 

 jellies, tough small colonies, and long filaments. These three are the 

 predominant forms, though other forms occur more rarely. The 

 rhizoids on entering the algal masses behave very much in the same 

 way as the tips of protonema branches. In many cases, a much 

 more extensive and minute branching takes place and the resemblance 

 to fungal hyphae coiling round algal cells in Lichens, is very striking. 

 H like connections and net-work formations ar6 more common. In 

 favourable preparations, the encircling of the algal'colonies by 

 rhizoidal branches is clearly seen. 



Fig. 6 shows a few Nostoc colonies attached to the rhizoidal 

 branches. Fig. 5 shows one of the colonies lightly crushed under the 

 cover glass. The penetration of the branches into the alagal colony is 

 seen. Further examination shows an extremely minute sub-division 

 of the rhizoidal branches and their extension in between the cells 

 of the colonies. In case of colonies with small algal cells, it was not 

 possible to follow the finer ramifications and see exactly in what 



