38 COMMON SEAWEEDS. 



will amply reward them ; and we give an extract from 

 " Objects for the Microscope,"* which is not difficult 

 to understand and test. 



In Fucks JVodosus the fructification is divided. The 

 antlieridia or male organs are on one plant, the arche- 

 gonia or female organs on another; therefore it is 

 best to take Fucus Serratus, which has them both 

 together, the one olive green, the other orange yellow, 

 on the same frond, and, if possible, between the months 

 of December and April. 



Choose a mature receptacle, which may be known 

 by its discharging little gelatinous masses adhering 

 round its orifice. Make a section through it, and you 

 will see a globular cavity lined with filaments, some 

 of which project through the pore. These filaments 

 are jointed, or rather are composed of cells containing 

 what are called anther ozoides. These are yellow dots 

 with two long thread-like appendages, which, when 

 liberated by the breaking of the cell, have a sponta- 

 neous and rapid motion, and they immediately swarm 

 around the sporangia, and fecundate them. The spo- 

 rangia are pear-shaped bodies lying amongst these 

 filaments near the walls of the cavity, and they are 

 the parent cells of the germ cells which produce the 

 spores or seeds. Each of these sporangia gives forth 

 a cluster of eight cells, and are therefore also called 

 octospores. 



In the hermaphrodite Fuci the spores do not leave 

 the receptacle until after their fecundation; but in 

 Fucus Vesiculosus, which is a diascious plant, the a/ntke- 



" Objects for the Microscope." By L. Lane Claeke. Groombridge. 



