41 



tips of the filaments of the female plants (fig. 3), They 

 are produced successively, sc tliat on a fertile branch a 

 procarp is formed on nearly every node. Their origin and 

 development has "been described in detail hy Lliss SMITH 

 (»98), whose account supplements that of PARLOW ('yg), and 

 SPALDIIIG ('90) . 



The procarps are formed from the s.-iiall terminal veg- 

 etative cells. V/hen a procarp is to be initiated, the ter- 

 minal cell, instead of dividing in the v/a,y usual in termi- 

 nal vegetative cells, becomes pushed to one side by a lat- 

 eral branch of the subterminal cell (fig. 43), v/hich be- 

 comes the main axis of the filament. The terminal cell 

 which is to give rise to the proca-rp contains several nu- 

 clei; it divides into two cells in such a way that one cell 

 lies partly over the other. The pla.ne of division is 

 oblique, the inner edge of the partition being somewhat low- 

 er than the outer (fig. 70) . Tlie lower of the two cells 

 so formed is the basal cell of the procarp. The upper cell 

 divides again by a transverse wall to form tlie central cell 

 of the procarp and the first peripheral cell (fig. 71) , 

 The first peripheral cell is cut off from tlie central cell 

 on the axial side. A second and third peripheral cell be- 

 come cut off from the upper border of tjie central cell, 

 with no discernible regularity of position (figs. 72,73). 



