% DrucEj on Confervoidece. 79 
Henfrey has described antlieridia of somewhat higher grade, 
having definite tubular apertures, and discharging similar 
corpuscules, occurring simultaneously with the resting spores; 
so that hardly any doubt can remain here as to their co- 
relationship. I should here mention, that Professor Henfrey 
suggests an affinity with the colourless zoospores witnessed by 
him in Spirogyra. I beg therefore to disclaim any appro- 
priation of discovery in these observations, only believing I 
have been so fortunate as to continue them one step further. 
I have seen a similar process in Cladophora, and in a small 
branched Conferva allied to it : the capsules were adherent 
after the manner of those of CEdogonium, excepting that 
they were affixed by a point incised, instead of rootlike pro- 
cesses ; but the contents were freed by the dehiscence of a 
definite lid, and corresponded in all other respects entirely. 
In Closterium moniliferwn I have found the chlorophyll 
to disappear, as in Spirogyra, and the spheroidal bodies 
rolling to and fro in the frustule, filling by degrees with the 
purplish-black cell- contents, and finally bursting into an- 
therozoids. 
In the last number of the ' Microscopical Journal,^ Mr. 
Archer has described and figured bodies apparently similar 
to those I have mentioned, in an abnormal Tetmemorus, but 
also affirms it to be a frequent occurrence in Tetmemorus, 
Micrasterias, and Euastrum, and he has also seen a similar 
phenomenon to that which Professor Henfrey describes in 
Chlorospheera, in Closterium, viz., the formation of flask- 
shaped bodies, discharging antherozoids, which in both cases 
are, I would suggest, the encysted antheridia. Cohn^s 
account of the formation of the antheridia and antherozoids 
in Volvox, agrees also in all main points with my account in 
Spirogyra and CEdogonium. In ffidogonium I have had the 
good fortune to witness, I believe, the actual fecundation, a 
drawing of which I have attempted, which has at least the 
merit of having been drawn from life. 
These are my facts ; and, if the interpretation I have 
placed upon them be correct, they serve to show that, in the 
several classes named, the fructification attains essentially to 
the same degree of organization as that of the higher Algse ; 
and as approximate occurrences have been from time to time 
observed in almost all of the Confervoid Algee, the type may 
fairly be considered universal to the group. The summary 
of the foregoing is — first, that conjugation is not the genera- 
tive act in organisms in which it occurs, and not essential, 
though it may lie subservient to the preparation of true 
spores for fecundation. Secondly, that true fecundated spores 
VOL. VIII. I 
