1918] 
MOORE—GOMONTIA LIGNICOLA, N. SP. 213 
but the contrast between the brilliant bright green terminal 
cell and the pale, almost colorless, contiguous cells arrests the 
attention at once. If the spore from which the filament has 
arisen be still attached, as is frequently the ease, it too may 
retain its brilliant green color, giving the effect of two algal 
cells being held together by a fungal thread (pl. 14, figs. 1, 4, 5). 
That this condition is perfectly normal and not due to any 
parasite or injury to the colorless cells is easily demonstrated 
by watching the formation of new cells as they are eut off 
apically from the original cell. It is as though the full supply 
of chloroplast material for the entire filament were contained 
in the apical cell and only enough supplied to the new cell to 
maintain it. The temptation to speculate upon the possible 
explanation of this phenomenon, which, together with the 
wood-penetrating habit, may be so easily construed as another 
indication of the origin of certain aquatic fungi from algae, 
is resisted in order that those who are more interested in 
this sort of thing may have the entire field to themselves. 
The composition of the cell wall, as well as the cell con- 
tents, is typically Gomontia-like. No reaction for true cellu- 
lose is obtained either from the delicate wall of the young 
cells or the eutinized older and much thickened walls. From 
one to six rather large nuclei may be observed in each cell, 
and these do not seem to be, as suggested by West,! ‘‘due to 
the incipient formation of resting akinetes.’’ A single chlo- 
roplast, which, because of its reticulate and irregular char- 
acter, frequently gives the appearance of numerous disk- 
shaped or elongated color bodies, is present and a varying 
number of pyrenoids can usually be made out. Starch is very 
abundant in the resting cells, but may or may not be detected 
in the actively growing vegetative cells. Protoplasmie con- 
nections between the cells can easily be discerned, particularly 
in those cells practically devoid of chlorophyll (pl. 13, fig. 2). 
SPORANGIA 
Except for the absence of ‘‘rhizoids’’ the formation and 
general character of the sporangium of G. lignicola agree well 
1 Algae 1: 305. 1916. 
