32 WILLIAM ARCHER. 
that of Sirosiphon. The asci are accompanied by linear 
paraphyses; the spores are + in an ascus, nearly colourless, 
broadly elliptic, simple, with two bright corpuscles each with 
a minute dot in its centre immersed therein, one towards 
either end. Length of the spore ;;5,, breadth =.,; (figs. 
1, 2). 
Another Scytonema whose precise identity seems difficult 
to determine also presented apothecia. This too I found 
on only one occasion; the contents usually formed a thin 
somewhat irregular central string up the middle of a 
somewhat thick striated sheath, except near the apices of 
the “ branches ” (which sometimes were given off singly) in 
which they were thicker and quadratic (figs. 3—6). In this 
Scytonema the nearly mature apothecia were globose, smooth, 
shining, of a dark brownish-chocolate colour, usually placed 
somewhere along the length of the filament, but might be 
occasionally terminal (figs. 3—6). Sometimes they seemed 
almost to form an interruption of the continuity of the fila- 
ment, or as if inserted into a special rounded excavation in it, 
and separated from it by a sharp line of demarcation (fig. 4). 
Certain of the filaments showed here and there what seemed to 
be agglomerations of brownish-coloured granules, which by 
their quantity caused a distension of the filament and an inter- 
ruption of the string of contents ; these I took to be incipient 
apothecia, judging from their position, but this is of course 
not certain (figs. 9—11). The more mature apothecia seemed 
somewhat depressed at the top where the opening occurs (fig. 
6). Like the apothecia of all these forms the present are 
very tough and intractable, the only plan to obtain the asci 
separate with their spores, on account of their minuteness, 
being to cause them to become ejected by (very forcible) 
pressure. In the present instance this was of more than 
usual difficulty, and I was unable to press out an ascus intact 
to discover if it was 4- or 8- spored. I believe, however, the 
latter—the paraphyses—were slender linear. The separated 
spores themselves were somewhat readily obtained, and they 
are different from the preceding ; here they are much longer 
and narrower, being of lanceolate outline, simple, colourless, 
with a minute dot-like bas towards either end; length 
of spore +,!;;, breadth ~,'5, (fig. 8). 
Coming to Strosiphonacee, another case is offered by S. 
alpinus. Here the apothecia are smooth, but not shiny, 
blackish, globular, variously situated, sometimes in the axil 
of a branch (fig 13), sometimes along the length of the fila- 
ment (fig. 12), or even terminal. Here as elsewhere it is 
only by pressure that the asci and spores can be ejected. 
