340 M. Treviranus on the Organized Bodies in 



much more lively than in the atoms of lifeless bodies. In the 

 seminal fluid of a bream, which I examined in May, I saw these 

 vesicles attract and repel each other, on diluting the semen with 

 water. 



" From the observations which I have now communicated, 

 the reader will not fail to recognise a strong analogy between 

 the organized parts of animal semen and the pollen of plants. 

 The latter, just like the former, is composed of an aggregate of 

 vesicles surrounded by a common integument, and containing 

 the proper fructifying matter ; and which, when moistened by 

 the fluid that exudes from the stigma and nectaries at the period 

 of their maturity, quit their investment. The pollen globules 

 of many plants, particularly in the unripe state, are so like the 

 bodies found in the seminal fluid of the snail, that any one who 

 saw one or the other under the microscope, without knowing 

 whence they were taken, could not say whether they were of 

 animal or vegetable origin. I found this resemblance to the 

 bodies already described among others in the unripe pollen of 

 the larch. 



" On the other hand, there are undoubtedly points of dissimi- 

 larity between the organized parts of animal and vegetable 

 semen. The differences, however, are unimportant. In the 

 first place, there is an absence of all motion in the pollen. We 

 have seen, however, that, in the seminal fluid of many of the 

 lower animals, only feeble motions are observable. Again, the 

 globules of pollen are without peduncles. Although Turpin 

 and Decandolle suspected that they were always connected to 

 the anthers by filaments during the first stage of their forma- 

 tion, and although, in the Clarkia pulchella, I have myself found 

 many of them attached to filaments which proceeded from the 

 fibrous coats of the anther, still, I have not been able to discover 

 a connexion of this kind in any other plant which I examined, 

 even during the first stage of the origin of these globules. I dis- 

 sected the rudiments of the following year's flowers of a Daphne 

 Mezereon in the middle of October. The anthers had, even 

 then, a yellow colour, and had nearly attained their full size. 

 The pollen globules contained within them lay in a yellow firm 

 matter, but were almost destitute of colour. From their trans- 

 parency, I was able to distinguish in them the external integu- 



