M. Miiller on the Development of the Lycopodiacese. 321 



corresponded with that observed by Schleiden himself. In my 

 estimation however, that is a vegetable cell which possesses no 

 contractility (like that of the animal), whereby we can at the first 

 glance through the microscope distinguish a simple animal cell, 

 like that of a Monas. The development of chlorophylle in the 

 interior of this vegetable cell is to me the second important di- 

 stinction. A third lies in the colour of the animal cell, which 

 can only be comprehended by actual sight, which cannot be ex- 

 pressed, and varies from the hyaline appearance of the vegetable 

 cell to the reddish colour of cytoblastema. 



Next to this structure follows, secondly, the simple spore, 

 from the Algse to the Ferns. Here the plant is formed out- 

 side the spore, which elongates in a tubular manner : there are 

 several modifications of this. In the Algse — e. g. in Char a, which 

 I include here on account of the agreement of its fruit with that 

 of Chcetophora, in Chatophora tuberculosa and endivicefolia, where 

 I have distinctly observed it — the whole spore grows out at once 

 into an axis, which is in fact nothing more than a simple tube. 

 Whether the so-called Floridea among the Algse, ally the true sea- 

 weeds, to the following modifications, I know not. In these, as 

 is well known, a proto-thallus is developed and the plant is then 

 produced from a bud which is formed upon it. This occurs from 

 the Fungi — in the Lichens it is only probable — to the Ferns. It is 

 sufiiciently known that further modifications occur in theprotothal- 

 lus, that this sometimes appears as a tubular filament, sometimes 

 as a tissue of filaments, according to the more highly developed 

 structure of the family. A higher step is at all events taken by 

 nature if Goppert^s observations shall be confirmed — that an axis 

 is developed at once from the antheridium-spore of Lycopodium, 



To this widely distributed structure succeeds, thirdly, the ovu- 

 lum of the Selaginellce. Here the plant is produced without im- 

 pregnation in the interior of the ovule, consequently in an embryo- 

 sac, and perfected externally. 



Fourthly, we come to the ovule of Rhizocarpese : here the plant 

 is produced in the interior of the ovule by impregnation in the man- 

 ner pointed out by Schleiden, the embryo being formed in the pol- 

 len-tube outside the embryo-sac, and the plant perfected on the out- 

 side of the ovule ; but the acts of impregnation and germination are 

 simultaneous stages. In the Rhizocarpece the axis originates free 

 in the germinal ^^ nidus ^^ {Wulste) serving as envelope (the germ, 

 Keimkorper), which may be compared to the proto-thallus of the 

 preceding Cryptogamia, only that here it is formed in the inte- 

 rior of the ovule. In the ovule of Lycopodium the axis still grows 

 in connection with the germinal body. Up to this point no main 

 root occurs, since, according to Mettenius, the root of the Rhizo- 

 carpece is not a main root, as Schleiden considered it. 



Ann, ^ Mag, N, Hist, Fo/.xix. 33 



