BY THE SEASIDE -PLANT LIFE 



will reveal a number of wart-like structures, and 

 at the end of each wart there is a little pore. If 

 we open up one of these little warts, very carefully 

 with our mounted needles, we shall find that each 

 little pore opens into a cavity, within which we can 

 find two kinds of structures, hidden amongst a 

 number of hair like growths. We shall see a number 

 of dark, oval bodies, at the base of the hairs, these 

 are the egg cells; more careful search will show us 

 a number of much branched structures also partly 

 concealed by the hairs, these are the male organs 

 of the plants. The purpose of the hairs, by the way, 

 is to keep the little chamber moist, when the plant 

 is left high and dry. If we watch the pores of the 

 other warts carefully we may be fortunate enough 



I to see the process of increase taking place, for it 

 occurs outside the plant and not within the chamber. 

 The egg cell divides into two and its contents pass 

 out of the chamber by way of the pore; each cell 



i of the male organs gives rise to sixty-four oval little 

 structures, each provided with a pair of minute 

 whip-like threads by means of which it swims from 

 the chamber and goes in search of the egg cells. 

 Many of these little navigators are lost by the way 

 but one of them will reach and fuse with each egg 

 cell. After fusion the new-formed cell germinates 

 at once into a new Channelled Wrack. 



That this is an advance is shown by the fact 

 that the little swimming bodies which fail to 



i fuse with the egg cell, do not develop into 

 new plants as in Ectocarpus nor does the egg 



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