600 REPORT — 1880. 



sphseropleaceae, oedogoniacese, fucaceae, and pbteosporeae. The Curpophycea (or 

 carpospermeas chlorophyllacefe) is made up of the coleochaetefe and floridece. 



The CHAEACE.i; constitute by themselves a group of primary importance. The 

 MusciNE^E are unchanged, comprising the Hepaticee and Miisci (including sphag- 

 naceae). lu "S'asculae Cryptogams it is proposed to revert to the primary dis- 

 tinction mio Isosporia and ffeterosporia, as most in accordance -with probable 

 genetic affinities. The isosporia consist of the filices (including ophioglossacese), 

 lycopodiacese, and equisetacese. The heterosporia comprise the rhizocarpese and 

 selaginellacepe. In the terminology of the heterosporia the inconvenience and 

 incorrectness are pointed out of the use of the terms 'macrospore' and 'macro- 

 sporangium '; and it is proposed to call the two kinds of spores and their recep- 

 tacles respectively microsjMre, mcffospore, microsporanffium, and megasporanyium \ 

 or better, in reference to their sexual differentiation, androspore, gynospore, andro- 

 sporanyiiun, and gynospoi-anyium. 



7. A Reformed System of Terminology of the Beproductive Organic of 

 Tliallophjtes} By Alfred W. Bennett, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S., Lecturer 

 on Botany at St. Thomas's Hospital, and George Murray, F.L.S., 

 Assistant, Botanical Department, British Museum. 



After giving illustrations of the present chaotic state of cryptogamic termi- 

 nology, the authors proceed to state that the object they have kept in view is to 

 arrive at a system v*'hicli shall be symmetrical and in accordance with the state of 

 knowledge, and which shall at the* same time interfere as little as possible with 

 existing terms. A few new terms are introduced, but the total number is greatly 

 reduced. 



In the 4th edition of his ' Lehrbuch/ Sachs defines a 'spore' as 'a reproductive 

 cell produced directly or indirectly by an act of fertilisation,' reserving the term 

 ' gonidium' for those reproductive cells which are produced without any previous 

 act of impregnation. The practical objections to this limitation of "terms are 

 pointed out, and it is proposed to restore the term spore to what has been in the 

 main hitherto its ordinary signification, viz., any cell jyroduced by ordinary processes 

 of vegetation and not by a union of sexual elements, which becomes detached for the 

 2}urpose of direct vegetative reproduction. The spore may be the result of ordinary 

 cell-division or of free cell-formation. In certain cases (zoospores) its first stage is 

 that of a naked mass of protoplasm ; in rare instances it is multicellular, breakiug 

 up into a number of cells (polyspores, composed of merispores, or breaking up 

 into sporidln). Throughout thallophytes the term is used iu the form of one of 

 numerous compounds expressive of the special character of the organ in the class 

 in question. Thus, in the protophyta and mucorini we have chlamydospores ; in the 

 myxomycetes, sporangiospores ; in the peronosporese, conidiospores ; in the sapro- 

 legniese, oophycere, and some zygOTphyceve, zoospores ; in the medmeve, teleutospores, 

 (ecldlospores, uredospores, and sporldia ; in the basidiomycetes, basidiosporcs ; in the 

 ascomycetes (including lichenes), conidiosjjores, stylospores, ascospores, polyspores, 

 and merispores ; in the hydrodictyese, megnspores ; in the desmidiese, aiLVospores ; 

 in the volvocineaj and meaocarf ex, jwrthenospores ; in the siphonese and botrydie.T, 

 hypnospores ; in the ccdorroB\a.cex, androspores ; iu the floridere, tetraspores and 

 octospores. The cell in which the spores are formed is in all cases a sporangium. 



In the terminology of the male fecundating organs very little change is 

 necessary. The cell or more complicated structure in which the male element is 

 formed is uniformly termed an antherldlirm, the ciliated fecundating bodies 

 antherozolds (in preference to ' spermatozcids '). In the florideas and lichenes, 

 the fecundating bodies are destitute of vibratile cilia : in the former case they are 

 still usually termed ' antherozolds,' in the latter ' spermatia,' and their receptacles 

 * spermogonia.' In order to mark the difference in structure from true anthero- 

 zolds, it is proposed to designate these motionless bodies in both cases pollinoids ; 



' Published in extcnso in the Quarterly Journal of Mieroscouical Science, for 

 October 1880. c ^ j r 



