Johnson . — Sphaerococcus coronopifolius , Stackh. 295 
procarpium-branches potentially. In each of them the pro- 
carpia, the number of which varies from one to six or more, 
occur at intervals throughout its length, close to the central 
axis, above, below, right or left of this as seen from above. 
In fact any primary lateral cellular branch of the central axis 
may develope a procarpium. From the second (proximal) 
joint-cell, rarely from the basal cell, of such a cellular branch, 
a usually three-celled secondary lateral branch arises. The 
three cells are so related to one another as to form a curved 
branch (Fig. 3) ; they are full of highly refractive minutely 
granular nucleated protoplasm, and constitute a carpogenous 
branch, the apical cell of which is the carpogonium and de- 
velopes the trichogyne. This carpogenous branch is readily 
distinguishable from the other secondary lateral branches by 
lying deeper within the procarpium-branch and by the cha- 
racters of the contents of its cells (Fig. 7). The procarpium 
is completed by the formation of a number of small secondary 
lateral branches of limited growth, from the basal and next 
joint-cell of the lateral branch bearing the carpogenous branch. 
These small cells, having similar but less refractive and dense 
contents than the cells of the carpogenous branch, are the 
c carpogenous cells,’ and have an important part to play in the 
formation of the fruit. In a longitudinal section of a procarpium- 
branch seen under an inch objective, the procarpia, situated close 
to the central axis in the middle layer of the procarpium-branch, 
stand out by the brightness of one or more of the cells of the 
carpogenous branch and by the closeness of aggregation of 
the small carpogenous cells. It is possible only under a higher 
power to make out the details of structure of any individual 
procarpium. Thus in Fig. 7, in the procarpium p\ only one 
cell of the carpogenous branch could be observed under an 
inch objective, though under a ^-inch objective all the cells of 
the carpogenous branch as well as part of the trichogyne 
were recognisable. The trichogyne is unusually variable in 
its course in Sphaerococcus. It reaches the surface of the 
thallus after curving in different cases in almost every im- 
aginable direction, sometimes creeping for a long way in the 
