2 g6 Johnson. — Sphaerococcus coronopifolius , Stackh. 
interior of the thallus as if searching for a weak spot in the 
cortex, there to project on to the external surface. It is only 
rarely that it passes almost directly to the surface (Fig. 4). It 
was not until I had spent a long time in examining some 
hundreds of sections under a ^-inch objective that I could 
satisfy myself that the coiling filament I saw in connection 
with the carpogenous branch was really the trichogyne, and 
that it projected at the thallus surface. I was constantly 
cutting it across. Indeed, in making thin sections of a pro- 
carpium-branch, it is almost sure to be so cut even if the rest 
of the procarpium is left intact. I found it very useful to place 
a piece of a thallus-branchlet bearing several procarpium- 
branches for twenty-four hours or more in a mixture of 
pure glycerine and alcohol until it became semi-transparent, 
then to examine each procarpium-branch on both sides with 
a high power until one was seen in which the procarpia were 
likely to yield useful results, and taking this particular 
procarpium-branch, after noting the exact position of its pro- 
carpia, to cut it longitudinally between thumb and finger. 
The sections, though sometimes lost or spoilt, were usually 
thin enough to allow examination of the procarpia and yet 
thick enough to prevent injury of them. Subsequent staining 
with various reagents often rendered the parts, in the usual 
way, more distinguishable. 
The CYSTOCARr. 
I did not clearly see the contact of a spermatium with the 
trichogyne, but judging from changes in the procarpium it is 
highly probable that fertilisation takes place in the normal 
way. More than once I found the trichogyne cut off from 
the rest of the carpogonium by a constriction at its base 
(Fig. 5), the contents of the carpogonium being thus divided 
into a useless non-nucleated part (compared by Schmitz to 
the polar body of Vaucheria ), and a more important nu- 
cleated part, the fertilised ovicell, the foundation of the fruit. 
In one case in which the trichogyne had been cut off I found 
two nuclei in the ‘ fertilised ovicell,’ but whether they were the 
