It is remarkable that bright hydrogen lines, requiring 13 volts for their production should appear in the spectra of objects as cool as long-period variables. The reversing layer and the photosphere, with temperatures of about 2000°, have nothing like the necessary amount of energy to offer. The curious irregularities in the Balmer series do not yield the interpretation, it is now clear that they are due to absorption by overlying gases. This fact indicates one important item, namely, that the origin of the bright line is not in an extended outer atmosphere, but in a level lying near, and even partly below the photosphere.