Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/246

208 mucilage and formed smaller colonies or where they were filamentous, the protonema branches became long and filamentous with long or short cells, and surrouuded or intertwined with the algae. During examination of the slides, one is often reminded of the condition in Lichens, with the fungus filaments coiling round big algal cells. This condition is much more striking in the case of the rhizoidal branches of the young moss plants. In the protonemal masses, the similarity is brought out especially, where the cells in contact with the algae are beaded and short as in some lichens. In the mass of algae in the vicinity of the branches, it is common to meet with both decaying and healthy algal cells and those which have partly or fully lost their cell-contents.

Germinating Gemmae.—The Gemmae, when detached from the plant, are club-shaped and 3 or 4 cells long. The first sign of germination is the putting forth of a rhizoidal cell from the basal end. This is followed or in some cases preceded by an oblique division of the apical cell. The rhizoidal cell grows quickly into a filament and extends into the algal masses, in the same manner as that described for the protonema branches though not to the same extent in the early stages. (Fig. 2.)

The Young Moss Plant.—In the young moss plants, when the mud attached to the rhizoids is carefully washed out, it is found that the main rhizoids have dark clots hanging from their ends. These clots, when repeatedly crushed lightly under the cover slip and washed or when treated with dilute HCl, show masses of algae attached to the tips of the main rhizoidal branches. (Fig. 1.) The algae are again of all the three kinds mentioned above, namely, big soft jellies, tough small colonies, and long filaments. These three are the predominant forms, though other forms occur more rarely. The rhizoids on entering the algal masses behave very much in the same way as the tips of protonema branches. In many cases, a much more extensive and minute branching takes place and the resemblance to fungal hyphae coiling round algal cells in Lichens, is very striking. H like connections and net-work formations ar6 more common. In favourable preparations, the encircling of the algal colonies by rhizoidal branches is clearly seen.

Fig. 6 shows a few Nostoc colonies attached to the rhizoidal branches. Fig. 5 shows one of the colonies lightly crushed under the cover glass. The penetration of the branches into the alagal colony is seen. Further examination shows an extremely minute sub-division of the rhizoidal branches and their extension in between the cells of the colonies. In case of colonies with small algal cells, it was not possible to follow the finer ramifications and see exactly in what