410 
ALFRED W. BENNETT. 
Zygosper 7716(2 chloy'opliyllaceos) is made up of the following 
orders : — Pandorinese, Hydrodictyese, Confervaceae (under 
which the Pithophoracese may possibly come); Ulotrichaceae; 
Ulvaceae; Botrydieae, and Conjugatae (the last comprising the 
Diatomaceae. Desmidieae; Zygnemaceac; and Mesocarpeae). The 
Oophyce(B (or Oosperynea chlorophyllacecE) include the Volvo- 
cineaS; Siphoneae (with the nearly allied Dasycladeae); Sphae- 
ropleaceae; Oedogoniaceae; Fucaceae, and Phaeosporeae. The 
CarpophycecB (or Carpospermece cMoropliyllacece) is made up 
of the Coleochaeteae and Floride^. 
The Characeae will he restored to their old rank as a 
group of primary importance. The MusciNEyE are un- 
changed, comprising the Hepaticce and Musci (including 
Sphagnaceae). 
In classifying the Vascular Cryptogams, I am com- 
pelled again to dissent from Sachs’s most recent proposal. 
Abandoning the primary division into isosporous and hete- 
rosporous forms, he proposes in their place three classes, of 
which two are newly suggested — Equisetaceae, Filicineae, and 
Dichotomi; the two last including both isosporous and hete- 
rosporous forms, the Rhizocarpeae being placed under Fili- 
cineae, and the Selaginellaceae under Dichotomi. The sexual 
differentiation of the spores into those which produce female 
prothallia and those which produce antherozoids, seems to 
me to lie so much deeper than any characteristics derived 
merely from vegetative characters, and to mark so distinctly 
a step upwards in the scale towards flowering plants, that 
I have no hesitation in restoring the primary division of 
vascular cryptogams into Isosporia and Heterosporia. As a 
minor point, it hardly seems logical to separate the Ophio- 
glossacese as a distinct order from Filices, if the Marattiaceae 
are to remain associated wdth them. The Isosporia will 
then consist of the Filices (including Ophioglossaceae), Ly- 
copodiaceae, and Equisetaceae. The Heterosporia will comprise 
the Rhizocarpeae and Selaginellaceae. 
In describing the heterosporous vascular cryptogams it is 
almost universal to speak of the spores which give rise to the 
female prothallium and those which give birth to anthero- 
zoids as macrospores” and microspores” respectively. 
The first of these terms is doubly objectionable ; firstly, ety- 
mologically, the correct meaning of juLaKpoQ being not large, 
but long ; and, secondly, from the close similarity in 
sound of the two terms, an inconvenience, especially in oral 
instruction, which every teacher must have experienced. 
Seeing that the correct and far preferable terms inegaspore 
and microspore are used by Berkeley, Areschoug, and others. 
