Fertilization of the Floridee. 85 
by another *, and appears merely to be a peculiar further 
development of this process, which is so widely diffused in 
vegetable life, while otherwise sexual fecundation stands 
rather isolated among the processes of organic life. 
But whether we regard this second act of conjugation in 
Glaosiphonia and other Floridez as a sexual act or not, in 
any case this process has only been originated within the 
roup itself; in the simplest forms it is entirely wanting. 
In these (Nemalion &c.) the course of development of the 
individual species proceeds as follows :—the vegetative plant 
proceeds from the germinating carpospore and develops sexual 
cells, after which the fecundated female cell grows upon the 
* That by this I by no means wish to assert that the fertilization of 
a (female) cell by another (male) cell consists simply in the accession of 
fresh nutritive material (as indeed has been formerly asserted) needs no 
express declaration. In all cases the male cell, as also the female cell, is 
a formed dwng cell-body and not a “ lump” of /ifeless nutritive material. 
+ Just as this second sexual act has made its original appearance within 
the group Floridez, so, evidently, may it also disappear again in the course 
of the development of this group, or instead of it the original first sexual act 
may be eliminated. In the first case the course of development of the 
species implicated will simply revert to the original form, and such forms 
might be hardly distinguishable from the primary simplest forms. On 
the other hand, if the first original sexual act disappears, the course of 
development of the species must thereby acquire a completely different 
aspect. For in this case the formation of spermatia must have entirely 
ceased; but, in exchange, either the individual spermatium mother-cells 
would develop directly into (simple or branched) male cell-filaments, 
which would fecundate the auxiliary cells, while the carpogonia entirely 
disappear, or no spermatium mother-cells at all would be formed, but 
instead of them the carpogonia would grow out directly into male cell- 
filaments (of course without preliminary development of a trichogyne). 
The final result, however, would be the same in both cases, namely the 
fertilization of auxiliary cells (produced sometimes from terminal cells, 
sometimes from joint-cells of the thallus-filaments) by the cells of shorter 
or longer, simple or branched cell-filaments. 
This elimination of the first sexual act has, however, never been actu- 
ally traced in the domain of the Floridez so far as our present observa- 
tions extend. It appears, however, to be realized among the Aseo- 
mycetes. Here, as already pointed out (p. 81, note), the Collemacez 
present such great analogies with the Floridez that one may well assume 
that the formation of the fruit is in them brought about in the same 
manner as, for example, in the Cryptonemiez. But in other Ascomy- 
cetes the above elimination of the first act of fertilization seems actually 
to have taken place in the course of development of the species, so that 
in these the second sexual act of the Floridez has alone persisted as the 
sole sexual act; the mother-cell of the ascogenous hyphz therefore repre- 
sents a Floridean auxiliary cell (Ascobolus &c.). Nay (if, indeed, the 
extant descriptions really exhaust the actual processes), this second sexual 
act appears to have also frequently disappeared, so that the auxiliary cell, 
whether distinguished or not by its peculiar form from the other cells of 
the hypha, becomes developed apogamically into the spore-fruit. 
