464 



NA TURE 



{Sept. II, 1879 



afterwards) prove it to be an organ of some use in that process. 

 The most essential and important part of the hair apparatus, 

 however, is the trichogyne (/, in Figs. 2 and 3), />., the recep- 

 tive organ, which in Floridece has a similar signification to that 

 of the elongated style in many phanerogams, while the central 

 part, c f, of the carpogonium is the analogue of the closed 



ovarimn of angiosperms. The trichogyne is a slender, colour- 

 less hair, consisting of but a single cell, which rises from the 

 carpogonium laterally from the apex of the latter, and does not 

 quite ;attain the length of the forked hair, ^ A. It forms just 

 about the time when all other parts of the carpogonium have 

 attained that degree of differentiation which they possess during 



Fig. a. 



fertilisation. In the full-grown state the trichogyne is of the 

 same thickness in its entire length, and rounded off suddenly at 

 the upper end. The narrow canal of the trichogyne contains 

 colourless, finely-granular protoplasm. 



Now if antherozoids of Polysiphonia subulata, which were 

 freshly discharged by the antheridia and have been accidentally 



carried near by currents, come into contact with the upper part 

 of the trichogyne, they get firmly attached to the latter. It Ls 

 particularly the apex of the trichogyne which possesses the 

 faculty of retaining > the globular antherozoids. Then the 

 granular protoplasmic contents of the antherozoids pass into the 





Fig. 3. 



interior of the trichogyne (Fig. 3 j"). A part of it descends 

 down the trichogynic canal into the carpogonium, giving the 

 fertilising impulse to the central cell of the carpogonium. ^This 

 process is quite similar to the corresponding one in phanero- 

 gams. 



Fig. 



As the anth«rozoids of Florideze are totally devoid of active 

 locomotive organs, the possibility of fertilisation, i.e., the coming 

 into contact of the antherozoids and the trichogyne, of course rests 

 entirely upon a lucky chance. The antherozoids reach the 

 female organs passively, either by their own weight or through 



