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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 21
and destitute of any general envelope. In by far the greater number of genera the
spores are not formed by direct outgrowths from the trichophore. In Callithamnion,
for instance, the fertilizing influence is propagated from the trichogyne, through the
trichophore and the cells below it which constitute the trichophoric apparatus, to
certain lateral cells, from which by repeated cell-division the spores are formed. In
Dudresnaya the cells of the trichophoric apparatus send out a number of lateral
tubes‚ which, in turn, convey the fertilizing impulse to certain modified branches in
other parts of the frond, so that, in reality, the cystocarp is formed at some distance
from the trichogyne by means of which it has been indirectly fertilized. A similar
mode of fertilization is known in Polyides and, according to Professor Schmitz, in the
Squamarieæ. The cystocarps are sometimes naked, that is, without a special
membranous envelope, as in Nemalion, but they not infrequently are contained in a
conceptacle or pericarp. In the latter case, the development can only be studied with
difficulty, because the conceptacle, which originates from some of the cells below the
trichophore, develops more rapidly than the rest of the cystocarp, and so shuts out
from view the process of the formation of the spores. It is impossible in the present
article to enter into the details of the development of the cystocarp in this
complicated order, but the reader interested in the subject is referred to the superb
work of Thuret and Bornet, Études Phycologiques, and the hardly less admirable
Notes Algologiques, of the same authors, for a masterly exposition of the subject.
MODE OF COLLECTING AND PREPARING SEA-WEEDS.
The collector of sea-weeds should be provided with a pail of tin or wood, or, better
still, with one of papier maché if it can be procured, in which he should place a
number of large wide-mouthed bottles and several small bottles, and one or two vials
filled with alcohol should not be forgotten. A knife is needed for scraping crustaceous
algæ from stones, and a geologist’s hammer and chisel are often useful. A hand-net,
with a long, stout, jointless pole and net with small meshes is a necessity. Clothes
for wading are also indispensable, since the best collecting grounds are below lowwater
mark. If the collector is not already sufficiently encumbered, he may throw a
common botanical collecting-box over his shoulder, as it will serve to carry the
coarser species. Collecting on sandy or gravelly beaches is very simple. One finds
there only the Florideæ and larger brown sea-weeds which are washed ashore after a
storm. It is only necessary to pull over the heaps of refuse at high-water mark, or to
dip up with a net the specimens which are floating at low-water. Collecting on
beaches is uncertain, because it is only at certain times that specimens are washed
ashore. On rocky shores, on wharves, and on the eel-grass we are always sure to find
something. One should examine the surface of rocks wet with the spray, the bases of
the stalks of the marsh-grasses, and even the surface of mud which is