Notes. 
321 
the specimens l . It was sometimes only to be observed for a short distance from the 
sieve-plate, but in other cases extended throughout the length of the element. It was 
found to occur in sieve-tubes where the callus formed a very thick deposit on the 
sieve-plates, as well as in others where no callus was present. The walls of some 
few sieve-tubes in the root were slightly lignified (chiefly close to the sieve-plate) in two 
or three plants, but no general lignification of the phloem in the root was observed. 
From the observations described above it appears that the walls of the phloem- 
elements in the stem, and the contents of the sieve-tubes in the root become normally 
lignified in the sunflower, and the same phenomena occur in other species of 
Helianihus. The occurrence of lignified contents in the sieve-tubes of the root of 
H. luberosus shows that this feature is not restricted to annual species. 
L. A. BOODLE. 
Jodrell Laboratory, Kew. 
GERMINATION OF THE SPORES OF OPHIOGLOSSUM.— During a recent 
visit to Java, attempts were made by the writer to germinate the spores of several 
species of Ophioglossum. Three species — 0 . Moluccanum , O. intermedium , and 
O. pendulum , germinated, and in all of these the earliest stages were observed. 
O. Moluccanum germinates very freely and quickly, the first germination stages 
having been met with within three days. In this species a small amount of chlorophyll 
was sometimes found, but it was insufficient to enable the young prothallium to develop 
independently, and the largest ones had but four cells. 
Germination in 0 . intermedium was much slower. Only a small amount of this 
rare species was available, and the observations were necessarily very incomplete. 
About a month after the spores were sown, the first stages were found. No 
chlorophyll could be detected, and the prothallia had but three cells. 
Spores of O. pendulum collected at Hanwella in Ceylon, and at Tjibodas in Java, 
were sown, and germinations were obtained in both cases. The first stages were not 
met with until about a month after the spores were sown, but it is quite possible that 
some may have germinated sooner. 
As in O. intermedium , no chlorophyll was formed, and the development of the 
young prothallium, until three cells were formed, was very much the same. But in 
0 . pendulum a number of young prothallia were found, in which there was an 
association with a mycorhizal fungus, which penetrated the cells of the young 
prothallium, and caused its further development. In one case a young prothallium 
of thirteen cells was found. In every case where growth had advanced beyond a three- 
celled stage, the mycorhiza was present. 
A number of adult prothallia of O. Moluccanum were found at Buitenzorg; and 
at Tjibodas prothallia of O. pendulum were collected in the humus between the leaf-bases 
of Asplenium nidus. 
DOUGLAS H. CAMPBELL. 
Singapore, 
June , 1906. 
1 Mr. J. H. Van Stone informed me in 1902 that he had observed lignification of the contents of 
some of the sieve-tubes in the stem of the perennial sunflower. 
