99 
Fossombronia longiseta, Aust. 
arise de novo , and as above stated do not disappear as described for 
Marcliantia . Shaw 1 , in his studies on Marsilia , represents in Fig. 5 
a body lying about midway between the spindle and cell-membrane, which 
he names a blepharoplastoid. This, as it appears in his Fig. 2, Ikeno 2 
considers as recalling that stage of the ‘Nebenkorper’ in Marchantia , as 
he has represented it in his Fig. 35. Whether the two are in any way 
homologous, only continued study can reveal. In fact, this whole question 
as to the origin of the ‘Nebenkorper’ and its morphological and physiological 
significance is one upon which only the study of many Archegoniates can 
throw any helpful light. 
The writers work on Fossombronia , while agreeing in many essential 
respects with what occurs in Marchantia and Pellia and certain Ferns that 
have been investigated, still presents some important differences which 
bespeak the great need of continued work along the same line with a large 
number of forms. 
The Archegonium. 
The development of the archegonium shows a few peculiarities, but 
in its more essential features it agrees with the other Hepaticae. It 
arises in a manner not unlike that of the antheridium, and in its initial 
stage, Fig. 37, PL VI, is sometimes difficult to distinguish from the first 
stage of the antheridium. Usually, however, it does not extend so far 
above surrounding cells. The first division, being horizontal, divides 
the initial cell into the archegonium-cell proper and the stalk. The 
upper cell is usually considerably larger than the lower, differing in this 
respect from Sphaerocarpus 3 . The next division in all cases examined did 
not take place in the stalk-cell, as in Sphaerocarpus and Geothallus^ , but 
in the upper cell, where a nearly vertical wall is formed (Fig. 30, PI. VI) 
very much as in other Liverworts. This is followed by two similar 
divisions in the remaining larger cell, thus separating the archegonium-cell 
into four. Following this, the stalk-cell divides by a horizontal wall, 
and later on a vertical division occurs. 
A horizontal division near the top of the axial cell cuts off (Fig. 41, 
PI. VI) a central cell, that later divides horizontally forming a canal-cell 
and an egg-cell. Thus the axial row comes to consist of three cells, 
the upper of which constitutes the cover-cell. About this time two of 
the three peripheral cells divide vertically, thus forming five neck-cells, Fig. 
46, PI. VI, the typical number for the J ungermanniaceae. In a few 
instances, however, cross-sections revealed six neck-cells as in Geothallus 5 , 
Fig. 47, PI. VI, and in the Marchantiaceae. 
1 loc. cit. (’98). 3 loc. cit. 3 Campbell (’95), p. 76. 
4 Campbell (’96), pp. 500-1 5 loc. cit. 
H 2 
