202 Mr. Griffith on the Ovulum q/'Santalum, 



will be still moi-e so, if the albumen be ultimately found to be derived from 

 the female. 



M. Schleiden, on the contrary, is of opinion, that between the spore and the 

 embryo there is an affinity amounting to fundamental unity ; and Mr. Valen- 

 tine not only holds the same opinion, but, overlooking the obvious difficulties 

 to which M. Schleiden has adverted as presented by some of the higher 

 Cryptogamic families, denies to these plants entirely a provision similar to 

 that of the pistillum of Phanerogams*. 



In the present state of our knowledge, I should be extremely unwilling to 



* The question of the sexuality of Acotyledonous plants is so intimately connected with the subject 

 of vegetable embryology, that I trust I shall be pardoned for hazarding a few observations derived from 

 personal experience : it is a question which the hypothesis of M. Schleiden necessitates him, as it were, 

 to disbelieve. 



The more developed Acotyledonous plants, which I take to be Filicps, Lycopodinees, Isoetes, Marsilea, 

 Sahinia, Azolla, Hepaticce and Musci, appear to me to present two very distinct types of organization, 

 at least as regards the female organ. In one type there is an evident pistillum containing an ovulum, 

 and this appears to be generally connected with limited development of the organs of vegetation. In 

 the other there is no evident pistillum, nor any palpable point on which analogy would indicate that 

 the male influence would be exerted. That type is also remarkable for the development of the organs 

 of vegetation. 



In Musci, the evidence of the mutual action of the sexes appears to me very satisfactory ; the usual 

 discoloration of the stigma and canal of the style is distinctly observable, and is followed by changes, 

 confined, however, to change of situation, affecting the cell pre-existing in the cavity of the ovEirium, 

 and which is analogous to a Phsenogamous ovulum. In Hepatica, particularly the vaginulate species, 

 the circumstances would appear to be the same : and in the evaginulate ones, and perhaps also in 

 Riccia, stiU nearer approaches are made by the changes which the pre-existing cell undergoes to the 

 ovulum of Phaenogamous plants. 



In the Azolla I have examined, which is the only other plant which appears to me pistilligerous, 

 for I have no knowledge of the development of Salvinia, the pistilla in each involucre are two, and 

 both present the appearance so generally characteristic of fertilization. The changes subsequent to 

 this are however very different, giving rise in one pistillum to the supposed male, in the other, to a 

 series of sporules derived from the characteristic dividing process. 



On Lycopodineee I have no observations, and on Filices merely a few surmises to offer. I believe 

 that every species will be found to present a male apparatus, which, I think, was first pointed out by the 

 great Hedwig, and subsequently by M. Link. I have lately alluded to it without having any previous 

 knowledge of the labours of the two above-mentioned botanists. The fertiUzation of Ferns I beheve 

 to be interpreted by Anthoceros, provided my observations on that genus be found to be correct. The 

 only difficulty exists in the anthers not appearing, in some cases at least, to dehisce ; but I beseech 

 botanists not to cast away the opinion of the very important nature of these bodies on a solitary ob- 

 jection ; they will remember that until very lately an absorptive process was generally adopted to 



