236 
S. R. Kashyap. 
As is well known both the male and female receptacles are 
surrounded by scales which are smaller than those present on 
the ventral surface of the thallus. The cells of these scales in 
both the species examined contain small round grains in addition 
to the nucleus which stains blue with iodine indicating the presence 
of starch. They may be starcli grains, but the writer is inclined to 
think that they probably represent reduced chloroplasts. As the 
material was preserved in alcohol no chlorophyll, if it ever was 
present, could be seen. The grains are certainly much smaller 
than ordinary chloroplasts. Chloroplasts in ventral scales have 
been described in several genera, Aitchisoniella , Stephensoniella, 
and Cyathodium, by the writer (New Phytologist, Vol. XIII, 
1914), and Monoselenium , by Goebel (Flora, Bd. 101, 1910). Both 
the ventral and the receptacular scales of Gollaniella contain chloro¬ 
plasts as was described by the writer in an earlier paper (New 
Phytologist, Vol. XIV, 1915). The grains in the two species of 
Plagiochasma examined usually occur in the basal half of the scale, 
though sometimes the whole scale is full of them except one or two 
cells at the apex. From the margins of the basal portion of the 
young scales numerous club-shaped mucilage hairs are given off 
resembling those found on the ventral scales. The terminal cell 
of the scale is also often hyaline resembling a mucilage hair (Fig. 1) 
Fig. 1. Plagiochasma appendiculatum. Scales from the male receptacle, 
x 75. 
The scales of the receptacles often show a distinction into a 
body and an appendage, but this distinction is never so marked as 
in the ventral scales. 
The usual form of the androecium is cordate or deeply bilobed. 
The tip of each lobe is covered with closely applied young scales 
while in the posterior portion the scales are older and more or less 
spreading. By teasing out antheridia under a dissecting micro¬ 
scope it can very easily be seen that the chambers at the tips of the 
lobes in both the species contain the youngest antheridia while 
those behind have older ones, and the chambers near the base are 
