38 IIOFMEISTER, ON 



increase in all three directions ; most actively in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the apex. By the coincidence of both methods 

 of multiplication of its cells, the hemispherical form of the 

 voimg capsule is changed, within a month, into a long oval 

 form (PI. V, fig. 13). 



By the end of August the walls of the cells of the inte- 

 rior are entirely broken up and undistinguishable. The 

 free primordial utricles begin now to clothe themselves with 

 new and firmer cell-walls. They then exhibit a very dif- 

 ferent deportment. One portion of the cells becomes elon- 

 gated and spindle-shaped the future elaters. A whole 

 string of cells lying in the longitudinal axis of the young 

 fruit assumes this spindle form ; around this string the 

 rest of the cells destined to form elaters are arranged, radi- 

 ating upwards (PI. V, fig. 37). Another portion of the 

 cells of the interior assumes a spherical form : these are 

 the mother- cells of the spores. In their fluid contents, very 

 numerous small chlorophyll - granules now make their 

 appearance. 



The mother-cells retain the spherical form only for a 

 short time. By the first week of September their walls ex- 

 hibit four protuberances, each of which, situated at a 

 distance of 120 from the neighbouring one, constitutes an 

 arched surface, the basal outline of which is an equilateral 

 spherical triangle. These bulgings of the cell- wall become 

 rapidly more and more arched ; by the middle of Sep- 

 tember each mother-cell appears to be composed of four 

 oval sacs open at one end, which unite at an angle of 120 

 with the open, more pointed ends, so as to form a quadrangu- 

 lar median space (PI. V, figs. 14, 15). Each of these bulgings 

 of the mother-cell contains a nucleus ; the mode of its origin, 

 as well as that of the primary central nucleus of the mother- 

 cell, (which latter nucleus has now disappeared,) is difficult 

 to make out, on account of the opaque cell-contents, which 

 consist of a thick mass of chlorophyll-granules. It is even 

 somewhat difficult to feel assured of Avhat is an undoubted 

 fact, viz., the presence of a secondary nucleus in each of 

 the bulgings of the mother-cell. 



At the boundaries of the four protuberances of the mother- 

 cell, the inner wall of the latter becomes much more thick- 



