TERMINOLOGY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF CRYPTOGAMS, 417 
oosphere is already in general use ; and, though not all that 
could be desired, it is proposed to retain it, and to establish 
from it a corresponding series of terms ending in sphere. 
The entire female organ before fertilisation, whether uni- 
cellular or multicellular, is designated by a set of terms 
ending in gonium, again following existing analogy. 
As will be seen from another paper presented to the Asso- 
ciation, we propose, in our forthcoming Handbook of 
Cryptogamic Botany,^’ to make the primary division of the 
Thallophytes into the three great classes of Protophyta, 
Fungi, and Algae, each of the two last being again divided 
into three parallel series of Zygospermeae, Oospermeae, and 
Carpospermeae, corresponding nearly to Sachs’s Zygosporeae, 
Oosporeae, and Carposporeae. In the Zygomycetes and 
Zygophyceae, the conjugated zygospheres., or contents of the 
zygogonia^ constitute a zygosperm ; in the Oomycetes and 
Oophyceae, the fertilised oosphere, or contents of the oogo- 
nium, is an oosperm; in the Carpophyceae, the fertilised 
carposphere, or contents of the carpogonium, constitutes a 
carposperm. In this last class the process is complicated, 
being effected by means of a special female organ, which, to 
keep up the etymological analogy, may be called a tricho- 
gonium rather than a “ trichogyne.” The ultimate result 
of impregnation is the production of a mass of tissue, known 
as the cystocarp (or sporocarp within which are pro- 
duced the germinating bodies, which must be designated 
carpospores, since they are not the direct result of fertilisa- 
tion, but which must be carefully distinguished from the 
so-called carpospore ” — properly an archesperm — in the 
Characeae. Any of these bodies which remains in a dor- 
mant condition for a time before germinating will be a 
hypnosperm. 
In the Zygospermeae it is no doubt the case that the two 
conjugating bodies are really a zygosphere and an anthero- 
zoid (or pollinoid) ; but, as they are at present absolutely in- 
distinguishable, it seems best to sacrifice theory, and calf 
them both zygospheres. 
It may be mentioned, by way of completing the analogy, 
that a precisely analogous set of terms will be pro- 
posed for the Cormophytes (Characeae, Muscineae, and 
Vascular Cryptogams), throughout which the fertilised 
archesphere, or contents of the archegonium, is called an 
archesperm. The latter term may be objected to as nearly 
identical with archisperm,” used by Strasburger and 
others as a synonym for gynmosperm ; but the term has not 
come into general use, and no confusion between the two 
