Johnson. — Sphaerococcus coronopifolius , Stackh . 297 
male and female nuclei about to fuse, or were due to the 
division of the nucleus of the fertilised ovicell, I cannot say 
(Fig. 6). In another case the wall of separation between the 
carpogonium and the middle cell of the carpogenous branch 
had broken down, the contents of the two cells were com- 
pletely fused together, but the nuclei were still separate. A 
fusion of this fused cell with the basal cell of the carpogenous 
branch I did not observe with certainty. There is, I think, 
little doubt that it occurs. Investigations of later stages of 
development gave some very interesting results which show 
the necessity of the examination of each genus of the Flo- 
rideae. The course of events in the development of the cysto- 
carp in Sphaerococcus is briefly as follows. The carpogonium 
(after fertilisation) fuses with the hypogynous cell, and this 
apparently fuses with the basal cell of the carpogenous branch. 
The common cell so formed next fuses with the mother-cell 
of the carpogenous branch, the second (proximal) joint-cell of 
a lateral branch, and this cell then fuses with the basal cell 
of the same branch. Fusion however does not cease at this 
point, for the basal cell of the lateral branch fuses with the 
cell bearing it, a joint-cell of the central axis of the pro- 
carpium-branch, and this joint-cell fuses with the next joint- 
cell below it. By this means a large common conjugation-cell 
is obtained, from the greater part of the surface of which (not 
from that part formed by the two joint-cells of the central axis) 
ooblastema-threads arise even before the process of fusion is 
completed. These threads are short radiating, branching, and 
of few cells, the end one or two cells becoming carpospores. 
It has been seen that each procarpium is completed by a cell- 
complex of carpogenous cells borne by the two basal cells of the 
primary lateral branch concerned. These carpogenous cells do 
not remain sterile here. They become more directly connected 
with the common fused cell, the central cell of the cystocarp, 
and produce at their free ends chains of carpospores just as do 
the ooblastema-threads directly sprouting from the central 
cell. Carpogenous cells similar to these have been described 
in other genera, and have had ascribed to them a similar 
