Allen . — The Spermatogenesis of Poly trichum juniperinum. 285 
integral part of the antherozoid. As between the Characeae and all the 
higher groups, an important difference seems to obtain in the fact that in the 
former, according to the most recent account (Mottier, 1904), the blepharo- 
plast appears first as a slender thread instead of originating as an isodiametric 
body which later elongates. 
With reference to the other structures of the androcyte, the accounts of 
different observers are extremely confusing. It is highly probable, as already 
pointed out, that the ‘ chromatoider Nebenkorper ’ described by Ikeno (1903) in 
the androcyte of Marchantia corresponds to the limosphere of Polytrichum . 
As Ikeno points out, Schottlander (1892) had figured a spherical body in 
the androcyte of Marchantia which is probably the ‘ Nebenkorper ’. 
Bolleter’s (1905) and Humphrey’s (1906) descriptions of similar bodies in 
the androcytes of Fegatella and Fossombronia are in harmony with that of 
Ikeno. Humphrey describes the body in question in Fossombronia as taking 
a position between the blepharoplast and the nucleus, where it elongates 
somewhat — a behaviour that is suggested by one of Ikeno’s figures. 
Finally, Humphrey thinks, the N ebenkorper becomes a part (the ‘ middle 
piece ’) of the body of the antherozoid. 
Arens (1907) finds, in the androcytes of Mnium , a body which he 
homologizes with the ‘ N ebenkorper ’ of Marchantia and Fossombronia. The 
body seen by Arens seems unquestionably to be the same as the limosphere 
of Polytrichum. According to him, it moves to a position between the 
nucleus and the blepharoplast and is there dissolved, its former position 
being marked in the later stages of spermatogenesis by a vacuole. If it be 
remembered that what Arens calls the blepharoplast is but the anterior end 
of the long body to which the majority of authors have applied that name, 
it will be seen that the behaviour of the ‘ Nebenkorper ’ in Mnium (as well 
as that of the similarly named body in Marchantia and Fossombronia ) 
corresponds closely with the behaviour of the limosphere as I have followed 
it in Poly trichum down to the time at which it gives off the apical body. 
The van Leeuwen-Reijnvaans (1908) describe a corresponding body, 
also under the name ‘ chromatoider Nebenkorper ’, in the androcytes of 
Polytrichum . Their figures show that they observed it also taking a 
position close to the anterior end of the blepharoplast, where they think 
it disappears before the nucleus begins to elongate. 
The bodies appearing in the androcytes of Poly trichum , Atrichum , and 
Pellia to which Wilson (1911) gives the name limosphere , are also in general 
certainly to be identified with that for which I have used the same name. 
But Wilson’s description is so confused, and so many of the appearances he 
describes are evidently the result of faulty technique, that it is sometimes 
difficult to determine whether at different stages he is applying the same 
name to the same structure. 
