22,2 Shaw: Merrillosphaera africana 203 



additional member was a small gonidium in the back part of the 

 coenobium. A collection made at Pasay on September 22, 1915, 

 contained an abundance of a form that very commonly contains 

 six, seven, or eight gonidia. It also contains smaller numbers, 

 and when four are present they may be two slightly unequal 

 pairs at about the same level, or one pair may be in the middle 

 and a smaller pair in the back of the coenobium. Four speci- 

 mens used in illustrating this material will show something of 

 the range of the number of gonidia in this form by the gonidial 

 content of their daughters. 



Specimen 39. — Plate 6, fig. 39. This is a rather unique coeno- 

 bium with six daughters arranged symmetrically in pairs. Only 

 two of the daughters bear developed reproductive bodies. In 

 each of these there is only one gonidium. There are a few 

 very small reproductive cells in some of the daughters, It may 

 be that these empty coenobia were to become males, but it 

 seems to me that they were not preparing for any reproduction. 



Specimen 40. Plate 6, fig. 40. This coenobium had seven 



gonidia, of which six produced three symmetrical pairs of 

 daughters and one a 16- or 32-celled embryo. The measure- 

 ments of the mother are 320 by 400 ^ The protoplasts are 

 globular and measure from 5 /* at the back to 7 /x at the front. 

 The average spacing of the cells appears to be about 10.7 /* and 

 the number of cells about 3,800. The daughters by pairs are 

 150 by 170 fi and 142 by 160 p., 125 by 138 p. and 125 by 145 » 

 and 105 by 100 and 110 by 118 M . The embryo, which has no 

 mate, is about 55 p wide and forms a hollow sphere with a small 

 phialopore. The nuclei of all the cells of the sphere are at or 

 near the inner ends of the cells. The daughters all contain 

 gonidia. In the largest there are six of these: a pair of large 

 ones, 55 by 58 p and 53 by 57 /»; a pair of smaller ones nearly in 

 the same plane as the first pair, 28 and 26 *; and a pair inter- 

 mediate in size, 41 and 35 M , at the back of the coenobium. The 

 mate to the largest daughter and one of the second pair each 

 have a pair of large gonidia and two other pairs consisting of 

 a medium and a smaller one. The other member of the second 

 pair has a pair of large gonidia and a small odd one near the 

 middle, and a medium and a small one at the back. The two 



' In the photographs taken in 1916, the measurements of this coenobium 

 are 350 by 460 m. It is evident that these specimens in Venetian turpen- 

 tine have shrunken until, in 1921, this one measures, under the microscope, 



That there has been shrinkage 



made evident by I 



fact that the 'daughters in the coenobium are now nearer togethe: 



