INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 199 



Oriffithsia secundiflora, but the cells are still naked, and, 

 according to Derbes and Solier, in an early stage there is a 

 surrounding hyaline membrane in Griffithsia sphcerica. In 

 G. Schousbcvi, on the contrary, they appear to be like those of 

 Callitharanion. In Bonnemaisonia, again, there is at first a 

 membrane, though at length the cells are quite free. In 

 Phyllop/wra the antheridia are bodies consisting of two kinds 

 of cells, and having groups of spermatozoid cells arranged in 

 a circle round the axis, and, according to circumstances, more 

 or less confluent. In Nitophyllum they form little milky 

 spots on the surface. In Rytiphlcea tinctoria, they resemble 

 those of Polysyphonia, except in their elliptic form ; a step 

 further, however, is made in R. ^nnastroides* where they are 

 cellular bodies, without any investing membrane, clothed 

 with delicate hairs. In Laurencia they are differently con- 

 stituted in different species. In Laurencia tenuis sima, they 

 are curiously twisted lateral cellular plates, of a greyish tint, 

 and bordered with large cells; the disc is occupied by the pro- 

 ductive cells, which are far smaller than those which surround 

 them. These evidently spring from a cellular branched axis. 

 In L. pinnatifida, instead of an o^en plate, we have a pezizse- 

 form body beautifully figured by Greville. Its disc resembles 

 again the hynijenium of a Peziza, and is formed of dart-like 

 vertical pale groups of cells, surmounted by two or three larger 

 oily-looking sacs filled with yellow pigment. These bodies 

 are occasionally forked, and appear to shoot out from the mass 

 like the asci of an Ascoholus. L. dasyphylla presents a third 

 modification. The antheridium is here a conceptacle, and the 

 dart-like groups of cells are ejected from the minute terminal 

 orifice. 



178. The spermatozoids of these cells vary a little in shape. 



* Greville was the first to describe these, Alg. Brit. p. 105. "In the 

 winter mouths very minute, globular, shortly stalked, yellow bodies, 

 resembling what are called the anthers in Jungermannicp, form clusters 

 ujion the upper ramuli, and from their number are very obvious, as the 

 l^lant is growing under water." He considers them, however, extra- 

 neous and probably of an animal nature. The septate bodies figured by 

 Turner can scarcely be the same thing. 



