FFR ?4 IQnq 
The Ohio Naturalist, 
PUBLISHED BY 
The Biological Club of the Ohio State University. 
Volume IX. FEBRUARY. 1909. No. 4. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
Griggs —The Sporophylls of Lessoniopsis. 437 
Jennings— Some New or Otherwise Noteworthy Plants from Ohio. 440 
Patton — A Synonymieal Definition of Nysson and of N. aurinotus.442 
Schaffner— The Classification of Plants, IV. . 446 
McCray —Meeting of the Biological Club. 455 
THE SPOROPHYLLS OF LESSONIOPSIS. 
Robert F. Griggs. 
In a former paper on the development of Lessoniopsis litoralis 
(Griggs ’09), the writer pointed out the fact that the division of 
the lamina by a basal perforation characteristic of the subfamily 
is always symmetrical involving the midrib and giving rise to 
two similar laminae each with a midrib in its centre. In such 
a process there is no place for the formation of sporophylls which 
lack the midrib. Since the former account was written material 
has come to my attention which shows the origin of sporophylls. 
This is a medium sized plant collected at the Minnesota Seaside 
Station early in July. Most of the sporophylls are already full 
grown but there are a number, especially on the smaller branches 
around the base of the plant, in all stages of development. 
From branches with sporophylls of different ages it is at once 
apparent that they correspond with the sporophylls of such 
kelps as Alaria and Pterygophora. They are not cut off bv 
splits in the transition region like the sterile laminae, but are 
outgrowths from the meristem below the base of the laminae. 
The youngest are mere knots roughening the edge of the stipe. 
These grow outward as in Pterygophora with scarcely any flat¬ 
tening till they reach about 1 cm. in length (fig. 1). But soon 
they begin to expand and each becomes a sessile spatulate blade 
(fig. 2). Under the protection of the surrounding laminae thev 
reach about a decimeter in length (fig. 3) before the erosion of 
the waves begins to destroy the rounded tips. Up to this age 
* Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory of Ohio State Uni¬ 
versity, XXXIX. 
library; 
NEW YORJi 
BOTANICAl! 
CiARBEN.l! 
437 
