210 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



way the algal cells were attacked by the rhizoidal branches. But 

 usually, either mixed up with the small cells of the colonies or inde- 

 pendently, bigger cells of a different species of alga are met with. 

 A few such are shown in Figs. 3 and 4 with the : rhizoidal branches, 

 which here consist of short cells, surrounding the algal cells and closely 

 adpressed to them. 



But even in these cases no special structures of absorption 

 such as haustoria have been noticed. That haustoria are not a neces. 

 sary condition for parasitic or symbiotic relationship is shown in the 

 cases of many fungi and also lichens. 



The effect of the intimate contact with the algal colonies is 

 seen very clearly. At the beginning, the algal cells are full of 

 protoplasm with bright blue-green colour and have a healthy vigorous 

 appearance. But gradually the colour fades and the contents dis- 

 appear. Some of the cells of a colony remain vigorous and healthy 

 whereas others are completely or partly decayed. Scytonema 

 filaments, with the portions in contact with the rhizoidal branches in 

 a decaying condition, are quite common. At still later stages, the 

 individual cells of the colonies are not recognisable and only a debris 

 of cell-walls is left. In the case of Scytonema, the thick sheaths 

 devoid of their contents are often met with'surrounding the rhizoidal 

 branches. 



In plants, which had not been growing for more than a fortnight, 

 large quantities of food material are often found stored up in the 

 rhizoids whose minor branches penetrate into the algal masses. And 

 it is not uncommon to find some of the branches inside the algal 

 masses swollen and full of food material. It is evident that the 

 plants themselves could not have manufactured all this food material 

 by the activity of its groen parts, within such a short time and it gives 

 room to a very strong presumption for an external source of the food 

 material. The extraordinary minute branching of the rhizoids, and the 

 intimate contact of the branches with the algal colonies which resembles 

 the behaviour of the fungal hyphae occurring between the algal colls in 

 the Lichens, further strengthens the presumption, that the relation 

 between the moss rhizoids and the algie, is very likely to be one of 

 parasitism of the rhizoids on the algal colonies. My friend Mr. 

 M. O. Parthasarathy Iyengar collaborates my observation and says 

 that in his wanderings in search of algae he had repeatedly noticed 

 that the young moss plants invariably appear only on substrata which 

 are first covered over with blue green algae. He is inclined to believo 

 that the same thing holds good for the common Liverworts which 

 appear immediately after the monsoon in Madras. 



As the mosses grow taller, the algae on the substratum disappear 



