36 



found in 1907 possessed the attaching disk already well 

 developed, v/hereas v/e know tliat in the sporelings 

 the tasal disk is developed quite slov/ly, 2, From the 

 time Griffithsia v/as first found in July development V70.s 

 e:-tremely rapid, and this seems to jioint to the conclusion 

 that t}ie pl8.nts drew on some store of. food, 



SEXUAL REPRODUCTIOIT. 



The antheridie, are distributed as caps over the upper 

 ends of tlie somev/hat glolDose termina,l cells of the male 

 plants (fig. 1). They are formed e.s the terminal cells of 

 short, much branched antheridial filaments. On a cell of 

 average size there were found to "be ahout 500 of these fil- 

 aments, each of which produce about 50-75 a.ntheridia, a 

 total of 25000-37500 antheridia for each fertile cell of 

 the male plant. The number of antheridia on a single an- 

 theridial filament, as well as the number of fila,ments pro- 

 duced on a single cell, varies greatly. 



The mode of origin of the antheridial filaments is as 

 follows: while the terminal cell of the male plant is 

 still small and not much swollen, (measuring on an average 

 0.2mm. long and 0.15 in broad at this stage) about 100-200 

 protuberances arise simultaneously on its apical surface 



