Fertilization of the Floridee. St 
the union of spermatium and carpogonium upon a third, dis- 
tant cell is never to be observed *. 
The general result of the above description may, however, 
be briefly summarized as follows :—In all Floridew a single 
male cell (spermatiwm) unites by open conjugation with the 
apex of the trichogyne of the female cell (the carpogontium) ; 
the cell-nucleus of the spermatium passes into the carpogo- 
nium and unites (apparently) with the cell-nucleus of the 
carpogonium. Then the ventral part of the carpogonium 
separates as a fertilized ovicell from the trichogyne. The 
fertilized ovicell, however, now becomes further developed in 
many different ways. It either grows directly into a bundle 
of branched ooblastema-threads, which finally produce the 
carpospores directly from their cells; or these threads enter 
into union with neighbouring cells of the sterile thallus-tissue 
for the obtentation of more abundant nourishment, and then 
produce the spores from their cells ; or the individual cells of 
these threads enter into conjugation with cells of the thallus- 
tissue rich in contents, and afterwards produce pluricellular 
complexes of spores; or the cells of these ooblastema-threads 
evacuate the whole of their plasmatic contents, or a portion of 
* Asis well known the great accordance in the development of the 
fruit in Ascomycetes and Floridez has already been repeatedly indicated 
in literature. This agreement appears particularly great since Stahl has 
succeeded in the Collemacez in tracing back the development of the 
apothecium to a “ procarpium ” of which the trichogyne is fertilized by 
spermatia. The preceding investigations on the fructification of the 
Florideze haye shown that a material connexion always exists between 
the two sexual cells, which concur in the act of fertilization, and the 
cell which in consequence thereof develops into the spore-fruit. The 
question now arises whether analogous conditions do not prevail also 
among the Collemacez and other similar Ascomycetes (and Ascidiomy- 
cetes ?) ; whether in these also the fertilized “ trichogynal cell” does not 
develop into an ooblastema-thread, and then one of the ooblastema-cells 
does not unite with one or more neighbouring auxiliary cells for the 
development of the tuft of filaments of the ‘“‘ascogenous hypha.” Various 
things seem to me to be in favour of this supposition, especially the great 
morphological agreement which exists in so many points between the 
Floridez and Ascomycetes. But nothing certain for the decision of this 
question can be derived from the results of the extant investigations (of 
Stahl, Borzi, and Fisch), as these investigations started from quite diffe- 
rent points of view, and therefore have not gone sufficiently in detail into 
the points which here essentially come under consideration. My own 
observations upon the development of the Collemaceze have not as yet 
been sufficiently detailed and complete to render any decision of this ques- 
tion possible. f j 
Further investigations will have to decide whether really (as it appears) 
perfectly analogous processes occur in the fructification of the Ascomy- 
cetes (and Ascidiomycetes?) and in that of the Floridez, or whether in these 
groups of Thallophytes, notwithstanding external resemblance, essential 
differences prevail in the processes in detail. 
