November ijt/i, ipo6.] PROCEEDINGS. xv 



unicellular bulbils or tubercles, formed by the transformation of 

 rhizoids. Sometimes a sequence of two or even three tubercles 

 may be seen. The tubercles, which are filled with starch, 

 provide a food supply for the growth of new shoots : the nuclei 

 of these tubercles are fragmented. Proembryos are formed in 

 large numbers from the rhizoid nodes, but more especially from 

 those nodes which bear tubercles. The cells forming the apex 

 of the proembryo (Vorkeimspitze) become large and conspicuous; 

 in them, fragmented nuclei of various shapes can be observed. 

 Sometimes in addition to the rhizoid node of the proembryo, 

 formed as in Chara by the cutting off of peripheral cells, there 

 occurs below this node an interposed node from which spring 

 rhizoids only. This interposed node differs from the rhizoid 

 node proper in the manner of its formation, the lateral rhizoids 

 being formed in a tuft on one side of the proembryo. 

 Transitions from a true rhizoid formation to a proembryo also 

 occur. 



In the discussion which followed, Mr. Charles Bailey 

 gave an account of his collecting, in 1881, a large number of 

 luxuriant examples of this species, in one of three salterns filled 

 with brackish water, and situate near the site of Newtown, an 

 extinct town in the Isle of Wight, near Yarmouth, represented 

 in Parliament by two members from the days of Elizabeth down 

 to 1832. In the saltern in question some of the plants were 

 found two feet or more in height, and dried examples were 

 exhibited to the members present. The same specimens are 

 referred to in the Proceedings of the Society for the Session 

 1881-82, vol. 2i, page 74. A living example of the plant was 

 sent to Kew Gardens at the time, but it was promptly purloined. 

 In later years the plant had been unsuccessfully sought for in 

 the Newtown salterns, and when he visited the same spot in the 

 year 1888 he found that it had completely disappeared through 

 the conversion of the old salterns into an oyster park, its habitat 

 being completely destroyed by the admission of sea-water. In 

 more recent years it had been found growing at Poole, in 

 Dorset, so that the species is not quite lost to the country. 



