244 Dr. L. Radlkofer on Fecundation in the Vegetable Kingdom, 



organs, like the Characese, Mosses, and Hepaticse, but that they 

 are also monoecious and dioecious. How is it, then, that we find 

 nothing of the same kind in the Fungi ? Perhaps, as was long 

 the case with the Ferns and Equisetacese, the organs are sought 

 where they do not lie. The cystidia of the Basidiosporous Fungi, 

 the paraphyses of the Thecasporous Fungi and of the Lichens, 

 and the free utricles of the mycelium of the Erysiphes, seem to 

 me to represent organs of fecundation. Although their presence 

 is not constant, we cannot refuse them a destination. No one 

 has hitherto thought of attributing to them any part in the nu- 

 trition, respiration, or circulation ; and it does not require any 

 great effort of imagination to suppose that they serve for repro- 

 duction : what is difficult, is to prove this. But ought we to con- 

 clude from the fact, that these organs do not exist in all Fungi, 

 that they do not fulfil any function, and that they are useless in 

 those cases where they are observed ? No ; we must wait until 

 experience has spoken. In the research of truth, we have first 

 to prove that existing theories are false, and then to show by 

 direct experiment the reality and the advantages of that which is 

 proposed : this, however, is impossible for me at present. With 

 the aid of the simplest preparation, I doubt not, the existence 

 of fecundating organs will be established ; but it must not be 

 forgotten that the principle vivifying the germs is not always 

 accompanied by spermatozoids, as is shown us by the Phanero- 

 gamia. Why should not this be the case also in other plants ? 

 In seeking and recognizing as the incontestable character of the 

 existence of male organs, these moving corpuscles, do we not 

 seek that which cannot be found ? This great exception of the 

 Phanerogamia is well worthy to fix the attention of investigators 

 of nature.^^ 



To render the historical summary complete, we have still to 

 mention that which, in Hcdwig^s eyes, above all spoke decisively 

 against their supposed nature, namely that the 'stamina' of 

 Micheli remain equally fresh during the maturation of the spores, 

 which in his opinion must always be subsequent to the fecunda- 

 tion. From observations on species of Agaricus, Hydnum and 

 Boletus, resting upon the epoch of their development, and its 

 non-coincidence with that of the formation of the spores, he 

 considered "the very numerous, oval, light brownish globules 

 lying on the filaments on the inner surface of the volva, annulus, 

 and the surface of the stipe itself,^' as the male fecundating 

 apparatus. Agaricus and Boletus are, in his view, monoecious 

 plants with distinct sexes*. Similar conditions as regards the 



* J. Hedwig, Theoria Generat. et Fruct. Plantar. Crvptogam. Linnaei. 

 Petrop. 1784, pp. 132, 134 et seq. 



