546 Williams — The Antherozoids of 
regard to the form and non-motility of the spermatia, and his 
figures are almost identical with those of the earlier botanist. 
In 1889, Johnson 1 , on the strength of observations made on 
Halyseris , expressed his belief that the so-called spermatia 
were motile antherozoids. His reasons are thus stated: 
4 On one occasion, between ten and eleven in the evening, 
I was examining the antheridia microscopically when I saw 
one from which the male corpuscles were escaping and 
exhibiting movements of such a nature as to give me the 
impression that they were ciliated. Subsequent examination, 
again and again repeated in different ways (and with ^ mm. 
immersion objective), of preserved material has strengthened 
my conviction that the male corpuscles of Dictyopteris are 
not pollinoids like those of the Florideae, but antherozoids, 
essentially like those of Cutleriaceae and Fucaceae. Fig. 10, 
PI. V, representing a developing antherozoid of Fucus vesicu- 
losus in Guignard’s paper 2 , is very like stages I have seen 
in the developing male corpuscles of Dictyopteris. Still 
I must ask to be permitted to reserve a final expression 
of opinion on the presence of cilia until I have made a detailed 
examination of fresh material. 5 This observation has not 
been confirmed either by Johnson himself or by any other 
algologist, so that in all the text-books, the possession of 
non-motile spermatia is still regarded as one of the distin- 
guishing characters of the Dictyotaceae. 
My attention became directed to the Dictyotaceae during 
the progress of a joint investigation 3 into the details of 
fertilization in the Fucaceae. It was found desirable to test 
the correctness of Thuret’s view, that parthenogenesis obtained 
in the group. If this view were proved incorrect, then the 
further question arose whether fertilization took place as in 
the Fucaceae, outside the parent plants, or before the liberation 
of the oospheres, as suggested by Reinke 4 . 
On Sept. 8, 1896, early in the morning, I placed in several 
watch-glasses and capsules of sea-water pieces of antheridial 
1 Linn. Soc. Jour. XX VII, 1891. a Rev. gen. de Bot., I, 1889. 
3 Proc. Roy. Soc., Vol. 60, p. 188. 4 Loc. cit. 
