188 Prof. J. B. Farmer and Mr. J. LI. Williams. 



The first is drawn from results of experiments performed on ferric 

 chloride containing 0'086 gram of iron per c.c., the second from 

 ferrous chloride containing O148 gram of iron per c.c., the third 

 from ferric sulphate containing 0'105 gram of iron per c.c., and the 

 fourth from an alcoholic solution of ferric chloride. 



The curves all show about the same temperature coefficient at 

 points corresponding to the same temperature. 



" On Fertilisation, and the Segmentation of the Spore, in 

 Fucus." By J. BRETLAND FARMER, M.A., Professor of 

 Botany at the Royal College of Science, and J. LI. 

 WILLIAMS, Marshall Scholar at the Royal College of 

 Science, London. Communicated by D. H. SCOTT, M.A., 

 Ph.D., F.R.S. Received May 21, Read June 18, 1896. 



The object of the present communication is to give an account of 

 the chief results of an investigation into the processes connected 

 with the formation and fertilisation of the oospheres and the 

 germination of the spore in Ascophyllum nodosum, Fucus vesi- 

 culosus, and Fucus platycarpus. The more obvious details of 

 development have been especially studied by Thuret, and later by 

 Oltmanns. But neither of these writers paid any special attention 

 to the behaviour of the cell-nuclei, nor did they succeed in 

 observing the actual process of fertilisation. Behrens has com- 

 municated an account (* Ber. d. Deutschen Bot. Gesel.,' Bd. IV) of 

 some researches made by himself on the fertilisation of the oospheres, 

 but we are unable to accept his conclusions for reasons shortly to be 

 recounted. 



The material for these investigations was obtained in London from 

 Bangor, Plymouth, and Jersey, but it was compared with other 

 material collected and fixed at the seaside at Bangor, Weymouth, 

 and Criccieth. Furthermore, all the growing apices and eon- 

 ceptacles for sectioning were collected by one of us directly at the 

 three last named places. Some samples were gathered between the 

 tides, and fixed at once, others were first kept for a time in salt 

 water ; the best results, however, were obtained from plants collected 

 in a boat about two or three hours after the tide had reached the 

 plant, and also from other plants taken a short time before they were 

 left exposed by the ebb tide. 



In order to study the fertilisation and germination stages, male 

 and female plants were kept in separate dishes, and were covered 

 over so as to prevent drying up. This method gave far better results 

 than those more usually advocated. On the appearance of the 



