LEPTOLEGNIA FROM NORTH CAROLINA 



(With Plate 16, Containing Five Figures) 



W. C. COKER 



Leptolegnia caudata De Bary, the only known species of the 

 genus, was found twice by De Bary from mountain lakes in 

 Germany in 1881 and 1884, and has not certainly been seen 

 since. In Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen Flora (i 4 : 346) Dr. 

 Fischer refers to a sterile plant that he thought might be this 

 species, and Dr. Roland Thaxter writes me that he has seen a 

 form without sexual reproduction that resembled Leptolegnia, 



The genus was defined by De Bary as follows :* " Eine 

 Oospore, das ganze Oogon liickenlos erfiillen ; sonst wie Sapro- 

 legnia" ; and the species was described in some detail a little 

 later.f 



At Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the fall of 1908 I found 

 in a culture jar of algae, that had been brought into the labora- 

 tory from pools in the vicinity, a species of water mold that 

 proved to belong to this genus. It has now been cultivated for 

 almost a year and carefully studied in all stages. 



At the last meeting of the North Carolina Academy of Science 

 in May of this year (Reported in Science 30: 188. Aug. 6, 1909) 

 I referred our plant to a new species, and I still think that from 

 some points of view it might be so considered. But further 

 cultivation in different media shows so great a variability that I 

 have decided to take the conservative course and refer the North 

 Carolina plant to L. caudata. 



In my observations certain facts have been established that add 

 to or are at variance with De Bary's description, and it may be 

 well to record them. 



My observations on the sporangia agree with De Bary's except 

 that in old cultures the sporangia may become very complex from 



* Botanische Zeitung 46: 609. 1888. 

 t Botanische Zeitung 46: 631. 1888. 



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