52, NATURAL SCIENCE. Jan.. 



hairs in the conceptacle of Splachnidinm are long, septate, and 

 unbranched, increasing in length by successive divisions at the base, 

 and giving the young conceptacle the appearance of the cryptosto- 

 mata of the Fucaceae. The sporangia are developed later. We 

 have, in fact, in this type a sorus of sporangia and paraphyses 

 comparable with those of Laminana, rolled up and definitely limited 

 in a conceptacular body, produced, not exactly in the same manner 

 as the Fucaceous conceptacle, but after another manner directly 

 comparable with it." 



The occurrence of cryptostomata is by no means confined to the 

 Fucaceae ; we find them in genera of Laminarieae — Alavia, Saccorhiza, 

 and Adenocystis. They also occur on other algae, such as Hydro- 

 clathrus (Scytosiphonaceae), described by Miss Mitchell (5), and on 

 Chnoospora (Sporochnaceae). 



As regards the Laminarian cryptostomata, Mr. Murray, who has 

 examined them himself, writes : " I have been so fortunate as to 

 obtain good examples of their occurrence in Saccorhiza hulbosa aiJidAlaria 

 esctilenta. Alavia has been frequently described as possessing crypto- 

 stomata. Greville definitely refers to them as " minute pores from 

 which issue minute tufts of filaments"; and Professor Bower refers 

 to them also in passing. I have not placed myself in antagonism 

 to these authorities on this minute point, without arming myself 

 with certainty .... No pits or conceptacles are formed, and in 

 a very old Alavia frond which I have examined, there was at most a 

 depression one cell deep. The Alaria cryptostomata, if I may call 

 them so, are tufts of hairs of basal growth, the cell at the apex of the 

 hair being first cut off from the epidermal layer. On Plate XVI., 

 Fig. 7, I have illustrated the mature cryptostoma of Saccorhiza bulbosa. 

 So far as I am aware, the mature stage of these bodies in Saccorhiza 

 has not been figured before, and the reader who compares this figure 

 with that of the young conceptacle of Splachnidium, while it yet bears 

 hairs only, cannot fail to be struck by the resemblance in all respects 

 except the persistent initial cell of Splachnidiim. We have here, 

 then, a body which has every claim to rank as a cryptostoma," Mr. 

 Murray then alludes to Mr. Setchell's paper on Saccorhiza dermatodea, 

 in which he has figured an early stage of the cryptostomata of this 

 plant, which strongly resembles the early stage of Alaria. The 

 development of the cryptostoma oi Alavia is regarded by Mr. Murray 

 as " arrested," and he accounts for this by the fact that the frond of 

 Alaria is so thin as not to allow room for the formation of pits. He 

 is confirmed in this view by Mr. Setchell's remark that " the crypto- 

 stomata are present on the one-layered portion of the blade (of 

 Saccorhiza dermatodea) as clusters of hairs upon the flat surface." 



Mr. Murray then goes on to consider Adenocystis, a hollow sac- 

 like alga, in form quite unlike any of the other Laminarieae. He 

 says : "It bears a resemblance both to the cryptostoma of its ally 

 Saccorhiza and to those of Hydroclathrus, illustrated by Miss Mitchell. 



