686 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 
The process of germination is very curious. A cell of the chain becomes 
pear-shaped. The wall at the pointed end becomes exceedingly thick, and appro- 
priate stains show that the swollen part is very mucilaginous. The pressure in 
the cell forces many of the chloroplasts together into the narrow end, the thick 
wall bursts, the contents emerge, enclosed in a thin pellicle, the original cell being 
left empty but with the aperture at the end obliterated. The newly emerged 
cell, oval in form, divides and forms a row of cells, and the basal cell puts out one 
or more rhizoids, which often grow along the outer surface of the empty cell wall. 
‘Drew has figured the germlings with their rhizoids inserted in the empty cell, as 
if the young plant had been completely formed inside the protonematoid cell. 
The genera examined were Laminaria (digitata and saccharina), Alaria, and 
Chorda. In all the forms the process was the same, and there can be no room for 
doubt that the well-known swarming bodies are asexual. 
4. The Reproductive Organs of Fitzroya patagonica (Hooker fils). 
By RR. C. McLean, B.Sc. 
Fitzroya patagonica, the ‘ Alerze’ of South America, is a somewhat peculiar 
member of the Cupressinee (Actinostrobinez), which grows in Southern Chile and 
Patagonia. It is confined to marshy ground, and forms large groves, some in- 
dividuals attaining even 180 feet in height. 
In England it does not reach large dimensions, but nevertheless flowers with 
freedom. The flowers have never been properly described. Usually the tree is 
dicecious, but some few specimens are known to be monecious. These latter 
often bear bisporangiate cones. All the flowers are borne on short lateral 
branches, axillary to leaves of the main shoots. 
The female flower consists of a cone about 5 mm. in length, formed by three 
alternating, trimerous whorls of scales, increasing in size from the base upwards, 
and borne upon an axis with internodes suppressed. ‘The lowest whorl is small 
and normally sterile; the second whorl varies from complete sterility to bearing 
a single ovule on each scale; but the upper whorl, composed of large, very fleshy, 
divaricating scales, is much the most important. 
The ovules are sessile upon the upper surface of the scale, and vary greatly in 
number. Scales of the second whorl never bear more than one; scales of the 
upper whorl may have one to six. ‘The form of the ovules is peculiar; the body 
is fusiform, 2- or 3-winged, and the single integument is prolonged upwards so as 
to form a micropylar tube, expanding terminally into a stigma. In the centre of 
the flower are three clavate glands which secrete an aromatic resin. These glands 
may represent a metamorphosed whorl of scales. 
The male flower forms a slender, cylindrical cone, 1 cm. in length, consisting 
of six alternating, trimerous whorls of thin, pointed scales, attached to the cone 
axis by peduncles. Four ovate sporangia are attached to each peduncle. The 
apical whorl is sometimes entirely concrescent. 
The bisporangiate cones have an increased number of whorls. Three sterile 
whorls at the base, then three whorls bearing microsporangia, and, uppermost, 
the two female whorls, with a reduced number of ovules. 
5. Vestigial Floras. By A. R. Horwoop. 
In making an ecological survey of East Leicestershire, certain remnants of a 
rich former flora contrasting with the uniform, and otherwise dissimilar, 
mesophytic flora (of which the tract is largely made up), have been discovered, 
for which the name vestigial floras seems appropriate. " ; 
Had the area been anything but a very commonplace, ox-pasture region, 
studded with modern woods and artificial pieces of water, these features would 
not have required any distinctive term; but the clearness with which they stand 
out from the barrenness of this region warrants some graphic mode of expressing 
the contrast, and indicating the genetic phase they represent. 
Indications of old bogs and heaths have been found as the survey pro- 
gressed, which in this vestigial form have not been noticed so far. 
Thus on Middle Lias (margaritatus shales), near Cold Newton Hriophorum 
