643 
gan or carpogonium and is characterised by ridi uninucleate proto- 
plasm and a hair-like out-growth, thè trichogyne. This trichogyne 
is a diverticulum of thè carpogonium, contains iion-nucleate proto* 
plasm, and projects more or less, beyond thè surface of thè thallus, 
into thè surrounding water. In thè Bangiaceae thè female sexual 
celi is also called thè carpogonium but it is an intercalary celi, not 
thè end celi of a special carpogenons branch and if it has a tricho- 
gyne it is not so pronounced, and is never a long hair-like filament, 
as in thè Eu- Fior idem. The function of thè trichogyne is to inter* 
cept thè non-rnotile spermatium in its passive movement through 
thè sea-water and so indirectly to bring about thè fertilisation of 
thè carpogonium. In thè Eu-Floridene thè extent to which thè tri- 
chogyne projects, varies accordiug as it is functional or not. In this 
group. too, thè carpogonium is generally more or less deeply im* 
bedded, either in thè compact thallus (e. g. Sphmrococcus) or amongst 
thè ordinary branching thallus filaments. In thè Bangiaceae on thè 
other hand thè carpogonium is superficial, and its trichogyne is al- 
rnost, sometimes, apparently, quite, absent. The superficial position of 
thè carpogonia, thè form of thè thallus in thè genera, and thè large 
number of carpogonia are, it seems to me, sufficient to ensure thè 
Corning into contact of thè spermatia with thè carpogonia, without 
thè intervention of thè usuai Fioridean trichogyne. The rnorphologi* 
cal significance which one was formerly inclined to attach to thè 
trichogyne, viz. as a polar celi, has, as Schmitz admits, been lost 
largely, by thè discovery by Oltmanns that in thè Fucacem thè 
polar cells are degraded ova (oospheres), a nature one cannot assign 
to thè Fioridean trichogyne. The trichogyne appears to me to be 
purely an organ of adaptation, of no special morphological value, its 
length dependent on thè extent to which thè carpogonium is imbed- 
ded in thè thallus substance, i. e. removed from thè thallus surface. 
Probably experiment would shew that thè coming into contact of 
thè spermatium with thè carpogonium, through thè intervention of 
its trichogyne, is not so purely mechanical as generally described, 
but that thè spermatium is bodily attracted, though devoid of cilia, 
to thè carpogonium by a secretion by thè latter, much as is thè 
antherozoid attracted to thè oosphere by saccharine secretions in 
Vascular cryptogams. Schmitz considers that thè greatest difference 
between thè two groups is in thè fertilisation of thè carpogonium 
Oltmanns : Beitràge zur vergleich. Entw. d. Fucaceen, 1889. 
