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 BRIEFER ARTICLES
A NOTE ON THE GENERATIONS OF POLYSIPHONIA'
(WITH ONE FIGURE)

YAMANOUCHI2 concludesfromhis cytologicalworkon Polysiphonia

ofa sexualplant(gametophyte)
violaceathat" thereis an alternation and
an asexual plant (sporophyte)in the lifehistoryof Polysiphonia,the
cystocarpbeingincludedas an earlypart of the sporophytic phase."
He foundthat on the cystocarpicplants therewas an occasionalab-
normality"in the formof a cell resemblinga monospore,but having
the same cell lineageas the tetrasporemothercell." He traced the
developmentof these cells and foundthat althoughcleavage furrows
appeared,thenucleusrarelyentereda mitosisand thecellneverdivided.
He makesnoteof thefactthatLOTSYhas foundtetraspores on thesame
plantswithsexualorgansin Chylocladiakaliformis and thatDAVIS has
found the same conditionin Spermatothamnion Turneri,Ceramium
rubrum,and CallithamnionBaileyi. He suggeststhat possiblythe
structuresreportedas tetrasporesare really monosporesand are de-
velopedwitha suppressionof reductionphenomena,or thatthe sexual
organsare developedapogamously.
LEWIS3 has attemptedan experimental testof the truthof YAMA-
NOUCHI')s conclusion. He says: "Cytologicalobservationson Poly-
siphoniaby YAMANOUCHI, on Griffithsia by myself,and on Delesseria
by SVEDELIUS renderit probablethatin thesegeneraat least,and pre-
sumablyin all Florideaein whichtetrasporesand sexualorgansare borne
on separateindividuals,thereexistsan alternationofsexualand asexual
plants,the carposporesgivingrise on germination to asexual,and the
tetrasporesto sexual individuals." The resultsthat he obtainedby
growingplants fromthe spores of Polysiphoniaviolacea,Griffithsia
Bornetiana,and Dasya elegansare consistentwiththe above theory,no
carposporeshaving.been foundto producesexual individuals,and no
tetrasporesto produceasexual individuals. Both the cytologicaland
the experimental evidencewould thus seem to unitein indicatingthat
I fromthe Puget Sound Marine Station,no. 2.
Contributions
2
YAMANOUCHI, S., The life historyof Polysiphonia. BOT. GAZ. 42:401-449.
I906.

3LEWIS, I. F., Alternationofgenerationsin certainFlorideae. .BOT.GAZ.53: 236-

242. I9I2.

BotanicalGazette,vol. 541 [I64

I9I2] BRIEFER ARTICLES i65

in at least Polysiphoniaviolacea,
thereis an alternationof generations
and to offerat least some foundationforthe beliefthat it is general
amongthered algae.
In i9ii ProfessorT. C. FRYE foundin Polysiphoniamaterial,col-
lected at the Puget Sound Marine Station in i9io, some specimens
showingboth carposporesand tetra-
sporeson the same individual. This
observationwas made in the course
of laboratoryworkwitha class and
no materialwas kept. He suggested
to the senior author of this note
that the subject be investigated
furtherat the Puget Sound Marine
Station. The junior author ex-
amined the Polysiphonia material
that was broughtinto the labora-
toryat the station duringthe ses-
sion of i9ii. In one lot of material
she found the same condition to
which ProfessorFRYE had referred.
The materialwas collected in the
lowerlittoralzone on therockyshore
of Turn Island,near FridayHarbor,
Washington. It has been identified
by ProfessorW. A. SETCHELL of the FIG. i.-Camera lucida drawingof
a portionof a Polysiphonia(?), show-
University of California as Plerosi- ing on the same individual both
phobia bipinnataand by Dr.-SHIGiO tetrasporesand a cystocarp with a
YAMANOUCHI of the Universityof carpospore.
Chicagoas Polysiphoniasp.
The fact that the mothercells had gone to the pointof complete
divisioninto tetrasporesin the materialexaminedindicatesthat the
tetrasporeswerenot abortive,and the fact that carposporeswereseen
issuingfromcystocarpicplants that bore also perfecttetrasporesindi-
cates that the cystocarpswere not abortive. We have thus an indi-
withthere
vidual thatis both sexual and asexual,whichis inconsistent
alwaysbeingin thisspeciesan alternationof a sexualindividualand an
asexual.
ProfessorT. C. FRYE and the seniorauthorof this noteare nowat
workon thecytology ofspecimensofthisspecieswitha viewto determin-
ing thesporophytic or gametophytic natureofthisgeneration by means
of mitoticstudies.-GEORGEB. RIGG and ANNIE D. DALGITY.