Archer — On Apothecia in Algce. 89 



the apices of the " branches " (which sometimes were given off singly) 

 in which they were thicker and quadratic (tigs. 3-6). In this Scyto- 

 nema the nearly mature apothecia were globose, smooth, shining, of a 

 dark brownish-chocolate colour, usually placed somewhere along the 

 length of the filament, but might be occasionally terminal (figs. 3-6). 

 Sometimes they seemed almost to form an interruption of the continu- 

 ity of the filament, or as if inserted into a special rounded excavation 

 in it, and separated from it by a sharp line of demarcation (fig. 4). 

 Certain of the filaments showed here and there what seemed to be 

 agglomerations of brownish-coloured granules, which by their quantity 

 caused a distension of the filament and an interruption of the string of 

 contents ; these I took to be incipient apothecia, judging £rom their 

 position; but this is of course not certain (figs. 9-11). The more 

 mature apothecia seemed somewhat depressed at the top where the 

 opening occurs (fig. 6). Like the apothecia of all these forms the 

 present were very tough and intractable, the only plan to obtain the 

 asci separate with their spores, on account of their minuteness, being to 

 cause them to become ejected by (very forcible) pressure. In the 

 present instance this was of more than usual difficulty, and I was un- 

 able to press out an ascus intact to discover if it was 4- or 8-spored ; 

 I beKeve, however, the latter. The paraphyses were slender, linear. 

 The separated spores themselves were somewhat readily obtained, and 

 they are different from the preceding, being much longer and nar- 

 rower, of lanceolate outline, simple, colourless, with a minute dot- 

 like corpuscle towards either end ; length of spore, j^^', breadth, 



— " (fig- 8). 



"000 \ o / 



Coming to Sirosiphonacece, another case is offered by S. alpinus. 

 Here the apothecia were smooth but not shiny, blackish, globular, 

 variously situated, sometimes in the axil of a branch (fig. 13), some- 

 times along the lenglh of the filament (fig. 12), or even terminal. 

 Here, as elsewhere, it was only by pressure that the asci and spores 

 could be ejected. The asci, as elsewhere, at first filled with a grumous 

 granular substance (figs. 16, 17), were, when mature, 8-spored 

 (fig. 18). Sometimes I saw asci with the contents contracted to a 

 broadly fusiform figure, and then divided transversely, thus pro- 

 ducing two conical bodies as if base to base (fig. 15). The para- 

 physes seemed to be of two lengths, the shorter about half the length 

 of the asci, linear, pointed, the longer about one-haK longer than the 

 asci, nearly twice broader than the former, with truncate end (fig. 17). 

 The spores here were different from either of the preceding, being uni- 

 septate, oblong, somewhat constricted at the middle opposite the sep- 

 tum, each end broadly rounded, colourless, each cavity showing a single 

 central bright minute corpuscle ; length, ■^^'■, breadth, ^~^' (fig. 14). 



Another Sirosiphonaceous form, 8. pulvinatus or S. Seufieriy showed 

 apothecia. They appeared in a young condition to be hemispherical, 

 when mature, globose, sometimes as if somewhat produced upwards, 

 and truncate at the opening (fig. 20). Unlike the previous, they did 

 not appear smooth when young, but as if slightly hirsute externally 



