318 M. Miiller on the Development of the Lycopodiaceae. 



" Both kinds of spores (in Lye. denticulatum) have already been 

 seen to germinate by Brotero and Salisbury (Trans, of the Linn. 

 Soc» vol. xii. p. 2. tab. 19). The accuracy of these observations 

 was however questioned by G. W. Bischoff (Krypt. Gew. 2 Lief, 

 p. Ill), because Salisbury's figures exhibited, throughout, too 

 great an agreement with the germination of a dicotyledonous 

 plant*. In November 1840 I noticed in a flower-pot standing 

 near Lye. denticulatum in the hothouse of our botanical garden, 

 some germinating plants which on closer inspection and their 

 further development I was enabled to recognise as Lye. denticu- 

 latum. They exhibited two conditions : one kind which had been 

 developed from the delicate pulverulent seeds were one-eighth of a 

 line highj and were already thickly clothed from the rootlets up- 

 ward with alternate leaves, but they did not divide in the bifurcate 

 manner so peculiar to the Lycopodia until they had attained a 

 length of from three to four lines. The others differed strikingly 

 from these, outwardly, and at the first glance appeared to possess 

 the greatest similarity with a germinating dicotyledonous plant. 

 The outermost envelope of the spore was still adhering to the 

 spot from which the roots, three to four lines long, extended 

 downward, so that no doubt could remain as to the development 

 from it, and from the same envelope was prolonged a perfectly 

 naked stem two to three lines long, projecting above the surface 

 of the ground ; the upper part bore the first leaflets, which how- 

 ever did not stand opposite one another like the seed-leaves of the 

 Dicotyledons, but alternate: this however could only be ascertained 

 by a pretty close examination ; and therein lies the mistake of the 

 illustrations figs. 2, 4 and 5 of Salisbmy, who has represented the 

 leaves as opposite f. Above these leaflets the axis divided into 

 two branches of equal development, so that the dichotomy appeared 

 at once here, while in the former it did not occur until after the 

 development of eight to ten whorls of leaves. Moreover in these 

 the leaflets were also twice or thrice as large as in the others. '' 



I have also related this author's observations on the germi- 

 nation of the oophoridium-spores here, because I hold them to be 

 an evidence, that Goppert saw real germinating plants of Lye. 

 denticulatum, and to him the Lycopodial nature of the plants pro- 

 duced from the antheridium-spores must be indubitable. Assu- 

 ming this, implicit trust may be placed on so accurate an ob- 

 server as Goppert ; yet I cannot suppress some perverse doubt, 

 which his figures have inspired me with. In the first place, they 

 are figured under too small a magnifying power to show more than 



* As is well known, BischofF retracted this in an appendix to iiis * Krypt. 

 Gew.,' having himself observed this germination, 

 t According to my observations Salisbury is quite right. 



