278 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXIX. 
gonium, this is probably not a point of fundamental importance. 
The writer has taken the trouble to examine this point some- 
what carefully in Equzsetum telmateia, Marattia douglasii, and 
Osmunda cinnamomea. In the former, an unmistakable basal 
cell was found in several instances (Fig. 1, D), although there is no 
question that ordinarily it is absent. Jeffrey states that in the 
species examined by him, it is universally wanting. In Marattia 
it was generally present, but much less conspicuous than in most 
ferns. Not infrequently, however, it was entirely wanting, as 
according to Jonkman (Bor. Zeitung, 1878), it is in the species 
of Marattia examined by him. Farmer says that in Angiopteris 
it is also absent! In Osmunda cinnamomea, while ordinarily 
present, it may be wanting. 
It is thus evident that too much stress cannot be laid upon 
the presence or absence of the basal cell. It is probably no 
more important than the pedicel in the archegonium of the 
Marchantiaceee. Marchantia polymorpha, for instance, regularly 
develops such a pedicel cell, while in Targionia and Fimbriaria, 
it is regularly absent, and the archegonium is closely sessile. 
An interesting condition was noted in several cases in Equi- 
setum (Fig. 1, Æ) where a basal cell was developed before the 
final cutting off of the mother cell of the archegonium. An 
exactly similar case was found in Marattia (Fig. 1, A). 
Jeffrey has described a peculiarity in the archegonium of 
Equisetum which he thinks points to a relationship with Lyco- 
podium as in one species, Lycopodium phlegmaria (Fig. 2, E), 
a similar condition has been found. This is the longitudinal 
division of the neck canal cell. To judge from my own prepa- 
rations of Equisetum telmateia, this rarely occurs in that species, 
where the division wall is normally transverse, as it is in the 
ferns (Fig. 1, F), and most other Archegoniates. A similar 
longitudinal division has been observed in species of Isoetes? 
In one instance a similar longitudinal division was found in 
Marattia (Fig. 2, Cy 
To summarize: it seems to the writer that in all respects 
1 Annals of Botany, vol. 6, 1892. 
á : f 
Arnoldi, Bot. Zeit., 1896; Lyon, Bot. Gazette, 1904. 
