THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 88. APRIL 1855. 



XXI. — A Comparative View of the more important Stages of 

 Development of some of the higher Cryptogamia and the Pha- 

 nerogamia. By Charles Jenner*. 



For some time past, the few hours of leisure I have been able 

 to spare from the pressing engagements of business, have been 

 employed in investigating the germination and reproduction of 

 the higher Ciyptogamic plants ; those Cryptogamic plants in 

 which sexual organs have been recognized, and the reproductive 

 spores of which, at one or other stage of their development, are 

 enclosed in a testa or case. My attention was early directed to 

 the following facts : — 



First. That in different orders of these plants, the spores are 

 enclosed in their testae, and set free from their connexion with 

 the parent plant, at altogether different stages of development. 

 For example, — 



The vesicular spore of a Moss is fecundated before it obtains 

 an enveloping case and is set free ; whereas the spore of a Fern, 

 when it is detached, consists only of a vegetative axile cell, which 

 developes into a thallus upon which is borne the fecundating 

 organ as well as the archegonial cell. And 



Secondly. That very varying stages of development are arrived 

 at, within the enclosure of the spore-case, in the several orders 

 of the higher Cryptogams : thus — 



In Ferns, the spore developes only externally to the spore- 



* Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, March 8, 1855. 

 Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xv. 16 



