CARPOSPOREjE. 



3^3 



antherozoids force their way in great numbers into the apical space, which is filled 

 with a hyaline mucilage. That one or more of them even find their way into the 

 oosphere is rendered the more certain by the fact that .about this time its papilla 

 is protected by a very weak cell-wall or has none at all, as is shown by the small 

 pressure required to expel its contents into the apical space. 



A. Braun's account of the morphological value of the carpogonium of Chara is fully 

 confirmed by our Fig. 203, ^. It is necessary to explain, in the first place, that this 

 is the lower part of a young fertile leaf of Chara fragilis, together with the contiguous 

 piece of the stem and an axillary bud, represented in longitudinal section ; m is half of 

 the nodal cell of the stem, i its upper, i' its lower internode, sr a descending,^ an ascend- 

 ing cortical lobe ; j/ the cortical lobe of the lower internode which descends from the 



Fig. ■20-^.— Chara fragilis, A lower pare of a fertile leaf, a lateral bud springfing from its axil ; B lower part of a sterile 

 leaf without an axillary shoot (in longitudinal section). 



leaf, rK a node of it ; /'" the first internode of the axillary bud which rests upon the 

 cell n that unites the nodal cell m with the basal node of the leaf. The leaf shows its 

 three lower internodes, 2, 2, 2, still rather short ; they eventually attain from 6 to 8 

 times this length. Between them are the nodal cells <ii;, w ; 1;, 1; are the cells which 

 unite the leaf-node with the basal node of the leaflets j3 on the outer side of the leaf ; a 

 the corresponding cells on the inner side of the leaf ; br the cortical lobes of the leaf, 

 two of which go upwards and two downwards from each leaflet /3; the lowermost 

 internode of the leaf is however covered only by descending lobes ; by the side of one 

 of them stands the stipule s\ x, x are the cortical lobes which descend on the inside 

 of the internodes of the leaf, where the leaflets are transformed into antheridia, «, a ; the 

 ascending cortical lobes of the leaf are here absent, because one carpogonium always 



