510 PROFESSOR W. C. WILLIAMSON ON THE ORGANIZATION 
clusters of conceptacles of a perfectly distinct type. Each conceptacle has a diameter 
of about - 016 to ’012. As seen in figs. 35 and 36, them form is that of rounded 
spheres, having a very thick outer investing layer, a, and a delicate, structureless 
inner one, b. In fig. 35 this inner membrane is intersected through its centre, but in 
fig. 36 the section has passed through it tangentially, illustrating its spherical form. 
In the latter instance it contains a number of very minute granular bodies that look 
like spores. When examined under low powers, even with the quarter-inch objective, 
the outer layer, a, appears to be composed of a mass of small, irregular parenchymatous 
cells, but the oil-immersion (one-eighth) revealed the structure shown in fig. 37. It 
consists of a dense mass of branching and interlacing tubes of varying diameters, the 
interstices of which appear to be filled up with a structureless substance. At numerous 
points, as at a, a, in the figure, the section has cut through these branches transversely. 
In other places, as at b, b, we have the meshes of the tubular network. In a few specimens 
I find two inner circular cavities of this form enclosed within a common peripheral 
tubular investing layer a ; but there is usually but one, and their ordinarily detached 
condition and comparatively uniform contour suggests that they have been closely 
grouped but independent organisms, and not the broken up portions of a common 
mass. Figs. 35 and 36 are enlarged 162, and fig. 37 750 diameters. I propose for 
them the name of Sporocarpon pachyderma. 
What these objects are is not easy to determine. It is impossible to overlook the 
resemblance between the branching tubules of the outer investment, a, and fungoid 
hyphae; but I know of no fungoid reproductive structures that in any way resemble 
them in their entirety. 
Fig. 38 represents the only example I have seen of what appears to he a transverse 
section of another conceptacle which exhibits very distinct features. It is contained 
in a slide of the Halifax material, for which I am indebted to Mr. Spencer. Its 
maximum diameter, including the radial prolongations, is about ’016. Its peripheral 
layer consists of a thick investment of parenchyma, a, which is prolonged into six 
unequal obtuse rays. Within this tissue is a central spherical cavity, b, within which 
again is a very thin structureless membrane, the tangentially intersected margin of 
which is seen at c. That the interior cavity is a spherical one is beyond doubt. 
Whether the six parenchymatous radii were the only ones which this object possessed, 
or whether similar ones existed perpendicular to the plane of the section, I am unable 
to say. I propose the name of Sporocarpon asteroides for this object. 
Fig. 39 is a transverse section of an organism from Halifax, for which also I am 
indebted to Mr. Spencer. Being the only specimen I have seen of this type I am 
unable to determine whether, in its perfect condition, it was a spherical or a cylindrical 
body. Its central cavity has a mean diameter of about '055. This is surrounded by 
a ring of dark, carbonaceous, compressed fragments, a, which I have no doubt represent 
compressed parenchyma, apparently the innermost portions of the layer, b. This is a 
layer bounded externally by an undulating outline and consists of a very regular form 
