OF FERNS FROM THEIR SPORES. 135 



subdivided, so as to form a globular mass of cells, in which the prominences indicating the 

 radicle and leaf soon make their appearance. 

 He never saw the actual entrance of the spermatozoid into the archegonium. 



VI. Conclusions. 



In summing up all these statements it becomes evident that the balance of evidence is 

 in favour of the existence of sexual organs, and of a process of impregnation, giving rise 

 to a new individual, as asserted by Suminski, although under conditions somewhat different 

 from those described by that author. Only two of the observers who have repeated his 

 investigations throw doubt upon these points, namely Wigand and Schacht : the state- 

 ments of the former as to matters of fact are far from sufficient to bear out the mass of 

 argument he has built upon them against the existence of sexes ; in fact, his observations 

 were so imperfect, that he described the two parts of the archegonium, the papilla and the 

 enlarged embryo-sac, as distinct structures, while he never traced the origin of the new 

 plant at all. His observations may therefore be safely passed over. Schacht' s are more 

 complete, but he again only argues against the probability of a sexual conjunction, with 

 the preconceived notion that this must be analogous to what he erroneously believes to be 

 the conditions in the Phanerogamia ; while his observations furnish facts which greatly 

 support the probability of an impregnation by the spermatozoids ; the difficulties he 

 suggests being of little weight in comparison with those of accounting for the existence of 

 all the peculiar structures by any other hypothesis. 



The opinions of all the rest are in favour of the impregnation (Thuret does not treat of 

 the archegonia) ; and the differences between them, except in the case of Suminski, are 

 unimportant in a physiological point of view, merely presenting questions of anatomical 

 and morphological interest. And since Suminski's description of the mode of origin of 

 the embryo would be altogether at variance with what exists, not only in other plants, but 

 also in animals, and is opposed to the observations of all the rest of us (except the doubt- 

 ful support given by Von Mercklin), I cannot but repeat my belief that he was led away 

 from the facts by his imagination being preoccupied by Schleiden's doctrine of the impreg- 

 nation of the Phanerogamia. 



These observations on the Perns have acquired vastly increased interest from the sub- 

 sequent investigations of Hofmeister, Mettenius and Nageli on the allied Cryptogams, and 

 above all, from Hofmeister' s observations on the processes occurring in the impregnation 

 of the Coniferse *. 



Not only have these investigations given us a satisfactory interpretation of the arche- 

 gonia and antheridia of the Mosses and Liverworts, but they have made known and 

 coordinated the existence of analogous phenomena in the Equisetacese, Lycopodiaceae 

 and Rhizocarpese, and shown, moreover, that the bodies described by Mr. Brown in the 

 Conifers, under the name of ' corpuscles,' are analogous to the archegonia of the Crypto- 

 gams, so that a link is hereby formed between these groups and the higher flowering 

 plants. 



* Vergleichende Untersuchungen, loc. dt. 



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