RHODOPHYCE, OR FLORIDEX 203 
branches, constituting the antheridia, are often col- 
lected into groups covering portions of the surface of 
the thallus. The surface may be depressed where they 
occur, and sometimes even flask-shaped cavities are 
formed, recalling the spermogonia of lichens (Fig. 84). 
The actual male cell itself is quite colourless but 
always nucleated. When ripe it opens at the apex 
and the contents issue forth as a round pollinoid, some- 
times with a beak-like projection, and always with a 
nucleus. The occurrence of pollinoid cells in series, 
one above the other, in certain antheridia may be 
due to intercalary bipartitions, but possibly, on the 
other hand, to the successive abstriction of terminal 
cells which have remained attached in a chain. 
After the emission of the pollinoid, the supporting 
cell sometimes grows through and develops another 
male cell within the empty wall of the original male 
‘cell. No cilia have ever been detected on this mem- 
braneless pollinoid, though Schmitz and other ob- 
servers have noted appearances that suggest the 
existence of some such organs. Guignard’s recent 
observations, however, leave little doubt that the 
pollinoids are without cilia, and, moreover, that in 
some cases at least they are provided with a mem- 
brane at the time of their escape. So far as is 
known, however, they are wafted by the water much 
as the pollen grains of flowers are blown by the wind, 
and they do not usually become invested with a mem- 
brane until they reach the female organ. 
The carpogonium itself is a single cell drawn out 
at one end into a long fine hair called the trichogyne, 
which projects from the surface of the thallus, and 
