BOTANICAL SUBJECTS. 303 



assisted by the hairs which line the conceptacles, and which all 

 converge towards their mouth. These hairs are jointed and 

 branched, it is they which support the antherides, and it is at 

 their l)ase that the spores are fixed. In certain species spores 

 and antherids are found in the same conceptacle. In others, 

 on the contrary, these two organs are produced in different 

 conceptacles, and on different individuals." 



In the genus Fuciis, and in other Algai, we find some interesting 

 dots disseminated over the frond. In Myriodesma latifoUa these 

 are the onlv organs of fructification called bv Phvcoloj^ists con- 

 ceptaclcs. They consist, as seen in- Fig. 129 (a), of spores i\ni{ 

 antheridia, that is, male and female elements. 



In Fucus resiculosus, however, and other si)ecies of Fucks, we 

 find that the active conceptacles are concentrated in specialized 

 heads or rece2>tacles, as they are called. The n^ceptacles or groups 

 of conceptacles corresjwnd to rudiuKMitary spikes of rudimentary 

 /lowers. AVhile (note this) the diffused dots on the remaining 

 portion of the Fucus fronds are no longer active organs of fructifi- 

 cation, but have become atrophied. They are remnants of 

 ancestral active organs in some alga^, from which this form of 

 Fucus descended. 



In Myriodestna latifolia we have an alga which has not yet 

 specialized a head of conceptacles, but has them disseminated all 

 over the frond. 



In the Fucus the atrophied conceptacles are there because 

 heredity Avas too stiong for them to be entirely effaced.* We are not 

 told what use the Fucus makes of them in their atro^jhied state, ))ut . 

 we may perhaps get a hint of the connection between Fucus concep- 

 tacles and oil-glands by taking a look at another alga, Vaucheria 

 sessilis, Fig. 129«, in which Stiasburger and Hillhouse tell us 

 the dots on the frond are oil drops ! It would appear that in this 

 alga the dots (a, a) or conceptacles (as I take them) had d(^generated 

 into oil-glandsf or oil-cells owing to specialized organs of 

 fructification having developed (A, 6), and which S. and H. have 

 called antheridiiim and oogonium, corresponding to stamens and 

 carpels in phnenogams. The authors call these dots oil drops, 

 but it may, perhaps, be jn-esumed, as in other cases, that these 



* Like the spliut bones of the horse. 



t The term gland in this ease is misleading, as it is not an active secreting 

 organ, but a breaking down of dead cells. 



