Smith on Asteridia. 
71 
semblance of the process of conjugation, or of that mingling 
of the contents of different cells so essential to this function 
of vegetable life ; and instead of only one body, which is the 
invariable result of the conjugating process between two cells, 
we have each cell containing several asteridia, the number of 
which I have noticed to vary from two to six in a single cell. 
Figs. 2 and 3, which are drawn from specimens supplied 
by R. Hodgson, Esq., exhibit phenomena which are equally 
irreconcilable with the hypothesis I controvert. These sketches 
represent portions of filaments of Mesocarpus scalaris. In this 
species the reproductive spore is lodged in the inflated tubes 
which connect the conjugating cells, while the asteridia, 
which were exceedingly numerous in the specimens I examined, 
were invariably contained in cells from which no connecting 
tubes had been projected. To the above considerations let 
me add the fact already referred to, viz. that germination has 
in several species of the ConjugatcE been observed to take 
place in the oval or elliptical spore which results from the 
process of conjugation, without any previous change in the 
form of this body. 
The figures, given in the plate which accompany Mr. Shad- 
bolt's paper, bear out to their fullest extent the facts I have 
now stated, and might, indeed, have sufficed as illustrations 
of my views had I not been desirous of giving as many 
examples as possible of a singular, and far from common, 
monstrosity, in a curious and interesting class of plants ; but 
I cannot forbear calling attention more particularly to Mr. 
Shadbolt's fig. 4. 
This drawing, which represents Lynghya floccosa with aste- 
ridia, is surely sufficient to prove that such bodies have no 
essential connexion with the reproductive spore, for in this 
case there are no traces whatever of the conjugating process, 
and each cell, whether with or without asteridia, has its full 
proportion of endochrome, though in a disturbed and degenerate 
condition, the breaking down of the cell- walls in the neigh- 
bourhood of the asteridia being a further evidence of the 
diseased condition of the filament. On the whole, while I 
feel unable to assign a positive character to these singular 
parasites, I feel no difficulty in withholding from them the 
important office ascribed to them by the gentleman upon 
whose communication I have commented. The writer of 
that paper will allow me to thank him for the interest he has 
excited in a subject which has long caused me no little per- 
plexity, and for the very lucid manner in which he has stated 
his opinions. 
Lewes, Jan. 12, 1853, 
