CARPOSPORE.E. 
297 
further divisions take place, till the ' apex of the pro-embryo ' which proceeds from 
it consists of a row of from three to six cells. Beneath the apex of the pro-embryo 
(Fig. 196, C, a, b) the tube swells, and the distended part becomes separated by 
a septum' as' a cell, which Pringsheim calls the 'bud-rudiment,' (Fig. 196, C, including 
the parts from 'v to d). This cell is now divided by two oblique walls into three 
cells, the middle one of which (q) lengthens into a tube (hke an internode), while the 
upper and lower ones remain short. Out of the lower cell is afterwards formed a 
root-producing leafless node (Fig. 196. d, and Fig. 191, d), while the upper one, which 
lies between the apex of the pro-embryo a b and the elongated cell q becomes the 
axis of the new generation. It becomes arched on one side outwards, and divides in 
succession into the cells J, //, and n. Each of the cells /, //, and III becomes 
transformed by divisions into a disc of cells or transitional node, three of which thus 
stand over one another with- 
out intermediate internodes. 
Their lateral cells grow right 
and left, and form imperfect 
leaves of different lengths. The 
cell which lies outermost (Fig. 
196, C, 'v) now begins to un- 
dergo a series of divisions, 
corresponding to those of a 
normal leaf-bearing shoot. It 
is, in fact, the apical cell of 
the sexual leaf-bearing plant 
which arises from the pro- 
embryo. The displacement 
indicated in Fig. 196, C, sub- 
sequently causes the apex of 
the pro-embryo to be pushed 
to one side; and since this 
apex has the appearance of a 
simple leaf uncovered by cor- 
tex, the further development 
of the lateral leaves which 
spring from the cells /, //, 
and ///, brings about an ap- 
pearance as if these different 
leaves together formed a whorl; 
and the bud of the lateral 
shoot thus comes to stand 
apparently in the centre of 
this pseudo-whorl (Fig. 196, 
A), If the structure which 
springs from the germinating spore is now compared with the pro-embryonic branch, 
the perfect homology cannot fail to be observed which Pringsheim pointed out in 
the parts that will be found indicated by the same letters in Figs. 191 and 196; 
but the pro-embryo of the spore has in addition a small node at the opening of the 
spore from which a rhizoid, sometimes called the primary root of Char a, springs 
(Fig. 191, nv). 
The Anther'idia and Carpogonia are always borne by the leaves. An antheridium 
is in all cases the metamorphosed terminal segment of a leaf or of a leaflet, and the 
carpogonium, in the monoecious species, arises close beside the antheridium from the 
basal node of the same leaflet {Chara) or from the last node of the leaf bearing a 
terminal antheridium {Nitella) ; hence in the monoecious Nitellse the carpogonia are 
Fig. 197. — Chara/ragilis. A middle part of a leaf h with an antlieridium 
a and a carpogonium S, cits crown ; ß sterile lateral leaflet; ß' large leaflets 
by the side of the carpogonium ; ß'' the bracteoles, spinging from the basal 
node of the carpogonium ( X about 50). B a young antheridium a with a still 
younger carpogonium SK ; 7u the nodal cell of the leaf, ii the uniting-cell 
between it and the basal node of the antheridium ; / cavity of the internode 
of the leaf; br cortical cells of the leaf ( X 350) (cf. Fig. 203). 
