390 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



slender hyptal filaments will be the parasitic fungus, the two form- 

 ing together the thallus of a plant which should no longer, because of 

 this union, have its legitimate place amongst the series of the classes 

 of plants." 



In examining a new species, C. pannosum, from Brazil, Dr. Miiller 

 claims to have discovered " a remarkably demonstrative case," which 

 confirms the general results recently published by Dr. Minks. 



One of the filaments in a great part of its length measured 8 yit in 

 diameter, and was composed only of a large green tube similar to the 

 large green tube of other filaments of the same stratum, and contained 

 the cylindrical green gonidia which simulated some articulations of 

 Conferva and is the alga of the theory. But at a certain point this 

 tube suddenly narrowed and became a very slender capillary tube 

 only 2 /x in diameter, without there being any discontinuation of the 

 cavity, the whole forming one single cell, at first large and afterwards 

 very narrow, perfectly similar to the slender hyphal tubes of the 

 theoretic fungus which enclose the large green tubes or theoretic alga 

 in other filaments of the same species. The caj)illary part, moreover, 

 showed clearly the microgonidia in their natural form, size, and 

 arrangement. "It follows that one and the same cell would have 

 been the theoretical alga on the enlarged gonidia-bearing side and 

 the theoretical fungus on the other side which remained narrow and 

 contained microgonidia, thus proving in the most absolute mauner 

 the falsity of the theory, as the same cell cannot at the same time 

 belong to two classes of plants. There is neither fnngus nor alga; 

 the whole is lichen, nothing but lichen ; and the two kinds of tubes. 

 so different at the first glance, are only different states of evolution of 

 one individual organ. The very slender hyphal tubes are the first part 

 containing the microgonidia. This first part may remain always in this 

 state, or it may also enlarge and lengthen, while the microgonidia, 

 originating by free-cell-formation, may pass into the stage of gonidia, 

 and then the narrow hyphal tubes will become large gonidia-bearing 

 tubes." 



Algse. 



Crystalloids of Marine Algse.* — J. Klein states that the 

 crystalloids found in marine algee are of two kinds : — (1) Colourless 

 or less often brown crystalloids, occurring in the living cells as a 

 constituent of their cell-contents, and differing in no essential respect 

 from the crystalloids of other plants ; and (2) crystalloids of a 

 carmine-red colour formed only by the action of certain reagents, as 

 sodium chloride, alci^hol, or glycerin, on the cell-contents of the 

 Florideje, or occasionally formed outside the cells — the rhodospermin 

 of Cramer. 



Of the first kind Klein describes the crystalloids found in 20 

 species of marine Algse, 5 of them green, the other 15 belonging to 

 the FloridesB ; they differ greatly in form and size, two or three 

 modifications sometimes occurring in the same species. They are 

 found within the parietal protoplasm, floating in the living cell, in the 



* Pringsheim's Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot., xiii. (1881), pp. 23-59 (1 pL). Cf. tliis 

 Joiirnal, iii. (1880) p. 494. 



