INTRODUCTION 



defence on etymological grounds ; and secondly, it must, like 'spore,' be 

 suited for ready combination. After much consideration we have de- 

 cided on adopting the syllable sperm. No doubt the objection will 

 present itself that the Greek o-Trep/za, like the Latin ' semen,' while origi- 

 nally meaning the ultimate product of fertilisation, came afterwards to 

 signify the male factor in impregnation ; and hence, in zoology, terms 

 derived from these roots are used for the male fertilising bodies. But 

 the objection applies to a much smaller extent to phyto-terminology, 

 and the use in the proposed sense of the syllable * sperm ' is justified by 

 the universal employment in phanerogamic botany of such terms as 

 ' gymnosperm,' 'angiosperm,' 'endosperm,' and 'perisperm.' Ofcrypto- 

 gamic terms, where the syllable is used in the reverse sense, 'sperm-cell,' 

 for antherozoid or pollen-grain, has never come into general use in this 

 country ; ' spermatozoid ' is easily replaced by ' antherozoid ; ' ' spermo- 

 gonium ' is simply a peculiar form of antherid, and ' spermatium ' has 

 already been referred to. Accepting this term as the least open to 

 objection of any that could be proposed, it will be found to supply the 

 basis of a symmetrical system of terminology, which will go far to redeem 

 the confusion that at present meets the student at the outset of his re- 

 searches. For the unfertilised female protoplasmic mass the term 

 oosphere is already in general use ; and, though not all that could be 

 desired, it is proposed to retain it. The entire female organ before fer- 

 tilisation, whether unicellular or multicellular, is designated by a set of 

 terms ending m gone, such as archegone and carpogone, again > following 

 existing analogy. 



The term reproduction itself is often far too vaguely employed by 

 botanical writers. We propose to limit its use, in accordance with its 

 etymology, to the production of a new individual, that is, to a process 

 of impregnation ; all cases of non-sexual multiplication being described 

 as propagation, 



The object of the writer of a handbook is to gather up and to collate 

 material already existing, winnowing, to the best of his judgment, the 

 wheat from the chaff. Except, therefore, where original observations 

 may have been made by the compiler himself, it will contain nothing 

 new. In compiling from the writings of the original observers it was 

 thought best, as far as possible, to use their own words, and this will 

 account for the frequent close resemblance in the following pages of the 

 descriptions contained to those in such works as de Bary's ' Comparative 

 Anatomy of the Phanerogams and Ferns,' the * Comparative Morphology 

 and Biology of the Fungi, Mycetozoa, and Bacteria,' by the same writer, 

 the scheme of which has been mainly adopted in outline, and Goebel's 

 'Outlines of Classification and Special Morphology.' Admirable, on 



