228 The Anatomy of Plants 



Book II 



pairing of the swarm spores of the Volvocineae in 1869. 

 Rostafinski and Woronin studied the life-history and 

 methods of reproduction of Botrydium in 1877. Schmitz 

 observed the coalescence of the nuclei in the conjugation 

 of the cells of Spirogyra. Towards the end of the century 

 appeared the remarkable investigations of Klebs on the 

 reproductive processes of the group and their relation to 

 the conditions of their environment. This work appeared 

 in 1896 and attracted at once the attention of all students 

 of vegetable physiology throughout the world. It was 

 undoubtedly one of the most important researches of the 

 century. 



The polymorphism which exists among the members of 

 the group was investigated by Chodat in 1897. 



Considerable progress was made in the elucidation of the 

 peculiar reproductive processes of the Rhodophyceae. The 

 most important researches among these Algae were those 

 of Bornet and Thuret from i860 to 1870. They investi- 

 gated the embryology in 1867 and extended our knowledge 

 of the fructification in much detail. Almost equally impor- 

 tant contributions in the same field were made by Schmitz, 

 whose work, Untersuchungen iiber die Befruchtung der Flori- 

 deen, appeared in 1883. Sirodot published an important 

 paper, Les Batrachospermes, in 1884. Later in the century, 

 from 1895 to 1898, Phillips investigated the group Rho- 

 dymeniales, particularly dealing with the structure and 

 development of the cystocarps, and in 1898 Oltmanns 

 materially increased our knowledge of the developmental 

 processes by his memoir, Entwicklungsgeschichte der Flori- 

 deen. 



Two or three very important features were presented in 

 connexion with the study of the Fungi. Of these, by far 

 the most epoch-making was the rise of the science of 

 bacteriology. Originally only a branch of botany, with 

 a bearing indeed upon pathology, it rapidly enlarged its 



