268 TRANSACTIONS OF THK CANADIAN INSTITTTE. [VOL. V. 



the superior margin being raised so as to produce a depression in the 

 centre. The antheridia occupied ridges in the bottom of this basin. 

 No archegonia were present, nor did the plants show a definite apical 

 meristem. The same observer remarked that the inferior cells of the 

 prothallus were occupied by an apparently symbiotic fungus, the 

 jnyceliuni of which communicated with the outside by means of the 

 root-hairs with which the plants was provided. He referred the 

 symbiont to the genus Pythium. More recently Treub^ has published 

 a description of the prothallium of Lycopodiuni cejmumn. Here the 

 gametophyte, as in Ophioglossum pedunculosum, starts from a primary 

 tubercule, and divides subsequently into green lobes. The sexual 

 organs have no definite arrangement and are monoecious. The arche- 

 gonia possess a single uninucleate canal-cell. The large antheridia have 

 a single-layered outer wall and produce biciliate moss-like antherozoids. 

 The embryo is peculiar in the possession of a rudimentary suspensor. 

 The stem in the young sporophyte is at first represented by a paren- 

 chymatous mass which has been designated the primary tubercule. 

 The first division in the embryo is transverse and gives rise to the 

 epibasal and hypobasal cells. The latter originates first the cotyledon ; 

 the stem-apex apparently not developing till after several leaves have 

 grown out. The first root also is derived from this segment, but only 

 after a number of foliar organs have unfolded. The prothallus in this 

 case was likewise occupied by a symbiotic fungus, which was considered 

 by the author to be a species of Pythium. 



Goebel7 about the same time described the sexual phase of another 

 species, Lycopodiuni inundatum. It closely resembled Lycopodium 

 cernuuni in structure, and also harboured a fungus resembling Pythium. 

 Treub^ has also published an account of another form, viz : Lycopodium 

 phlegmaria, which is slender, much branched, and entirely subterranean. 

 It is especially interesting on account of the occurrence of a number of 

 canal-cells in the archegonium and from the presence of paraphysis-like 

 growths among the antheridia. 



II. 



In 1895, the writer came upon a large number of prothallia of Botry- 

 chium virginianum in a Sphagnum-swamp behind the village of Little 

 Metis, in the Province of Quebec. The presence of these plants was 

 revealed by the greenish-yellow cotyledons appearing above the surface 



6. Etudes sur les Lycopodiac6es. Annales du Jardin botanique de Buitenzorg. Tome iv., v., vii, 

 vlii., 1884-18130. 



7. Bot. Zeitung-. 1887. No. 11-12. 



8. Op. Cit. 



