I 



and its relation to that in the Animal Kingdom. 261 



the confervoid rows of internal cells (pollen-cells, Fritsche). 

 The Infusorium-like movement of these spiral filaments after 

 their escape from the cells, was first observed by Bischofi"*. 

 Meyenf called them spermatozoids ; in agreement with his state- 

 ment, J. C. VarleyJ (1834) had already seen and figured a cilium 

 on them, which Meyen himself copied§. Thuret|| and Amici^ 

 showed that each spiral thread possessed two cilia. Thuret** 

 believes even that he has detected the opening in the cells through 

 which the spiral filaments escape, ordinarily with the unciliated 

 end first. According to the concurrent testimony of all ob- 

 servers tt^ the spiral bodies are developed from (in?) the nuclei, 

 which, however, are not so sharply defined, but more irregularly 

 shaped than usual. They are not formed simultaneously in a 

 whole row of cells, but, according to Thuret, first in the cells of 

 the apex, subsequently in those of the base of a filament ; — 

 according to Mettenius, in the contrary order. 



Although we possess no direct observation on the process of 

 fecundation in the Chares, when we look at the certain explana- 

 tions which we have lately obtained as to the import of active 

 spiral filaments in the vegetable kingdom, and at the above- 

 described mode of development of the young plants of Chara 

 from the spore, — we may with safety suppose that the fecund- 

 ating process takes place here before the complete development 

 of the spore, and that to produce this the spermatozoids pene- 

 trate into the young sporange. In this hypothesis we are 

 strengthened by the circumstance that the cells of the sporange 

 are not completely closed up over the spore-cell in the earliest 

 stage of its growth, but leave between them an open canal ; the 

 ripening of the antheridia, their dehiscence, and the emission of 

 the spermatozoids taking place at this epoch ; further, that in 



* Kryptog. Gewachse, p. 13, note. 



t J. F. Meyen, Pflanzenphys. ii. pp. 206, 217- 



X Improvements on the Vial Microscope. Trans. Soc. of Arts, &c. 

 London, vol. i. 



§ Pflanzenphysiol. iii. pi. 12. figs. 22-28, and p. 222. 



II Thuret, Note sur I'Anthere du Chara, &c. Ann. des Sc. nat. 2 ser. 

 xiv. (1840). 



IF Flora, 1844, B. ii. p.516. 



** Loc. supr. cit. pi. 6. fig. 21. 



tt See, in particular, Mettenius, Beitrage zur Entwiek. der bewegl. 

 Spiralfas. von Chara hispida. Bot. Zeit. 1845, p. 17. pi. 1. 



Nageli, Zeitschr. f. wiss. Botanik, Heft 1. p. 55(1844); Heft 3 & 4. 

 p. 105 (1846), where he calls the nuclei * seminal utricles.' 



Thuret, Sur les Antheridies des Cryptog, Ann. des Sc. nat. 3 ser. xvi. 

 p. 21 (1851). 



Schacht, Pflanzenzelle, p. 113 (Berlin, 1852). 



(Alex. Braun, Monatsb. Berlin Acad. Jan. 1853. Ann. Nat. Hist. 2 ser. 

 xii. p. 297.) 



