Neomeris chime to sa, L amour. 
59i 
of aplanosporangia is common to the whole of the Dasycla- 
daceae with the exception of Dasycladus clavaeformis , in 
which Berthold 1 has described the direct development of 
gametangia, and also Cympolia. , which, according to Cramer, 
appears to follow Neomeris , but no specimens were observed 
in which the sporangia had developed sufficiently far to be 
plugged off from the segments bearing them, while the in- 
teresting observations of Solms 2 on a case of apospory 
await further confirmation. The essential point to notice in 
Neomeris , however, is that we have here, side by side with 
a high degree of differentiation in the vegetative thallus, 
a presumably higher type of reproductive organ ; since the 
aplanosporangia which in Acetabularia , for example, are mor- 
phologically equivalent to one segment, or possibly a whole 
appendage, and give rise to many aplanospores, here arise 
as special and later outgrowths on the appendages, and are 
restricted to the production of a single aplanospore 3 . 
Only the upper portion of the adult plant possesses the full 
appendage of Stage V (Fig. 23) as a thrice di-trichotomizing 
member, of which the lower segments are highly differentiated* 
while the ultimate ramifications remain delicately filamentous. 
Further back the calcified cortical segments break away, 
leaving the incrusted basal segments, bearing the aplano- 
sporangia, exposed to view ; on the loss of these latter, the 
basal segments remain as three-scarred structures (Fig. 25), 
and may persist for a considerable period, though soon 
undergoing decalcification. Starch is generally distributed 
throughout the plant, the aplanosporangia being filled with 
large grains. Inulin also occurs in the form of small irregular 
1 Bot. Zeit. p. 648, 1880. 2 Loc. cit., p. 74. 
3 In describing the reproductive organs of Neomeris , I have so far used the 
words ‘ aplanosporangium ’ and c aplanospore ’ as being generally accepted terms. 
But while there is no need to fully discuss here the question of the alternation of 
generations occurring in the life-history of these forms, it must not be overlooked 
that, as Bower has pointed out (Annals of Botany, vol. iv, p. 356), all these plants 
are really sexual forms, i. e. gametophytes. No progress can be made toward 
a conception of the phylogeny of the group until it is clearly understood that the 
vegetative thallus of all the genera of the Dasycladaceae is directly homologous 
with that of Dasycladus itself and the other admittedly sexual Siphoneae (see p. 598). 
