1894. ] The Genus Naegelia of Reinsch. 53 
matures the beak-like pollinodium becomes closed, its walls 
are greatly thickened, and its cavity sometimes wholly oblit- 
erated, so that even in old oogonia it is very sharply defined, 
the old antheridium also persisting and becoming somewhat 
thicker walled. 
Oogonia.— The oogonia are either terminal or more fre- 
quently, like the sporangia with which they are often associated 
(fig. 4, x), borne laterally either singly or in whorls from the 
distal ends of the hyphal segments. They are nearly spheri- 
cal or in the majority of cases piriform in shape, becoming 
covered with a brown flaky #crustation disposed transversely, 
and are separated from the segment which bears them by the 
usual constriction, which is always plugged (fig. 6) by a de- 
posit of cellulin. Antheridia and pollinodia were present 
on every oogonium in the material obtained, even in the 
youngest specimens. In the latter the contents entirely fills 
the oogonium and consists of numerous large masses of re- 
fractive fatty protoplasm embedded in a more finely granular 
matrix. As this mass contracts to form the oospore a small 
. of residual protoplasm remains unused outside it 
g- 5). 
Oospores. —The oospores are always solitary in the oogonia, 
spherical, with very thick translucent walls which are slightly 
yellowish. The exospore, though slightly irregular in outline, 
shows. no signs of any characteristic modification. Their ger- 
mination was not observed. 
From the above account it is manifest that the genus Sapro- 
myces is very closely related to Rhipidium as far as can be 
determined from the fragmentary descriptions of this genus 
which are available. It is left quite uncertain by Cornu’s 
— how much importance should be attached to the dif- 
oo. between the basal cell of Rhipidium and its 
oe es, but if this character is as strikingly pronounced in 
= — remaining species as it isin R. interruptum, it would 
tio ° constitute alone a sufficient basis for generic separa- 
n. Whether the differences existing in the method by 
— the zoospores are discharged in either case should also 
Considered of 
lied upo 
h n by Reinsch as a basis for his genus, would seem, 
Owever 
» to be of comparatively slight importance. 
