74 HOFMEISTER, ON 



recently opened, small globular drops, often in large quan- 

 tities, consisting of a hyaline transparent slimy substance. 

 They appear to be formed from the escaped contents of the 

 canal which traverses the neck of the archegonium. In 

 recently-opened archegonia of /. bicuspidata and /. divari- 

 cata, as well as of J. bicrenata and Alicularia scalaris 

 (which archegonia by the commencement of the swelling of 

 their ventral portion exhibited the first indication of the 

 fruit-formation), I saw between these drops, delicate, more 

 or less twisted, colourless filaments, in appearance and size 

 exactly similar to the spermatozoa of those species, but 

 motionless (PL VII, figs. 12, 17 ; PI. VIII, fig. 3). 



The first division of the mother-cell of the rudiment of 

 a fruit takes place by a transverse septum, at right angles 

 to the longitudinal axis of the archegonium, and to that of the 

 future fruit (PL VII, figs. 12, 17; PL VIII, fig. 3; Pl.X, fig. 1; 

 PL XI I, fig. 3). In Frullania dilatata and Calypogeia Tricho- 

 manes the youngest, bicellular condition of the fruit is 

 shortly oval ; in Jung, divaricata it is somewhat more elon- 

 gated, and in J. bicuspidata it is drawn out to a great 

 length. The lower of the newly-formed cells continues 

 (with rare exceptions) during the whole life of the fruit 

 without division ; the upper one divides either immediately 

 by a longitudinal septum (as is almost always the case in 

 Frullania dilatata, Zopl/ocolea heteropliylla, liadula compla- 

 nata, and Alicularia scalaris), or else it divides once or 

 several times by horizontal transverse septa (as in /. bicus- 

 pidata, PL VIII, figs. 4, 5, J. divaricata, PL VII, fig. 8) ; 

 the division by a longitudinal septum first occurs in the 

 apical cell of the very young rudimentary fruit which con- 

 sists of a single row of from three to five cells. 



A horizontal transverse septum is now formed in both the 

 newly formed apical cells; each divides into an upper cell, hav- 

 ing the form of a quadrant of a sphere, and a lower cylindrical 

 one. A longitudinal septum bisecting the cell and radial to 

 the axis of the young fruit is then formed in each of the apical 

 cells, so that the rudimentary fruit now exhibits four apical 

 cells. In Frullania this division commences normally in the 

 pair of cells nearest to the basal cell (PL XII, figs. 6, 7). 

 In Calypogeia the same phenomenon is frequent (PL X, 



