284 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [APRIL 
cuneatum (fig. 8). Here two eggs are separated by two ventral 
canal cells lying below the two typical neck canal cells. Coker 
(8) has described and figured an archegonium of Mnium sp. with 
two eggs lying one above the other and each with a ventral 
canal cell. A Funaria hygrometrica preparation in my possession 
also shows this variation. 
The sex organs of some fern pro- 
thallit gathered in an Indiana bog last 
summer display remarkable plasticity of 
form and character. The sex organs 
were developed in profusion on these 
prothalli, and the mat as it was stripped 
off a log appeared beset with young 
sporophytes. Everything in their 
appearance bespoke most luxuriant 
5-—Longitudinal growth. Upon sectioning this material, 
he- the number of embryos formed from the 
Fic. 
median section of an arche 
gonium of Lycopodium com- ne 
planatum, showing the lateral Sexual spores was found to be limited. 
multiplication of the cells of Many of them are apogamous, develop- 
‘ : 
oe ing most frequently from the ‘‘jacket”’ 
cells of the thallus in immediate contact with 
the egg. The archegonia were perfectly nor- 
mal in development, the neck canal cells dis- 
solved, the neck opened and became choked 
with vigorous-looking sperms, but for some 
reason in most cases the egg failed to become 
the progenitor of the sporophyte. I have not 
been able to determine whether there is 
fusion of sperms with the cells that give rise 
to the apogamous embryo, although there is 
some evidence of that condition. The arche- Fic. 6.— Longitu- 
gonium neck behaves peculiarly. Instead of dinal median section of 
breaking down or becoming brown, as is the 7" archegonium oe 
: : ‘ copodium Phlegmaria, 
ordinary rule, in certain cases the lowermost showing the “ doubling ” 
neck cells branch and develop rhizoid-like of the axial row— After 
filaments or even antheridia which mature TREV®- 
pecies was undetermined. In the immediate vicinity were growing three 
species of Osmunda. Probably the gametophytes belong to this genus. 
