the Seminal Fluid of Animals. 341 



ment, which consisted of cells arranged in a reticular manner. 

 There was no trace of peduncles to be seen in them. I also 

 found the anthers of the female flowers of {the hazel filled with 

 pollen globules as early as the commencement of October. Their 

 contents consisted of a semi transparent uniform substance, lying 

 in a fluid matter, and having no connection at any point with 

 the walls of the anther. But although, in the animal kingdom, 

 the connection of the seminal corpuscles with the internal sur- 

 face of the testicle is very frequently by means of a peduncle, 

 still, this mode of connexion, even in them, is not so universal 

 that we should look upon it as something essential. 



" The pollen globules of plants do not swim in a fluid while 

 they remain in the anthers. The semen of animals also is ori- 

 ginally composed almost entirely of organized parts, which are 

 contained in a quantity of mucus, small in proportion to their 

 mass. It is chiefly in its transit through the excretory ducts, 

 that it is diluted by the fluids which are mixed with it in these 

 canals. Fluids of this description are also effused on vegetable 

 semen. In many plants the stigma secretes a watery substance, 

 causing the pollen globules which lie on it to open. In others, 

 a considerable quantity of this kind of fluid is secreted by the 

 nectaries ; while from the stigma a viscid juice exudes in smaller 

 quantity. The latter occurs in the Iris tribe and the Asclepiadea?. 



" In what way the seminal bodies of animals discharge their 

 contents, has not yet been observed. It is not probable that the 

 same occurrence takes place in them as in the pollen globules of 

 many plants, viz. the escape of their contents from the investing 

 membrane in the form of a long filiform cylinder. I have, how- 

 ever, observed this mode of exit only in a small number of plants. 

 The reason why the matter contained in the pollen globules of 

 such plants is discharged in this way is, because it is enveloped 

 in a considerable mass of viscid mucus, which, when forced 

 through a narrow opening in the membrane, by the contraction 

 of the external coat of the globule, is drawn out into a filament. 

 I have never found it, like an offshoot, proceeding from the 

 globule, a point of view in which the filament has been regarded 

 by A. Brongniart and Amici. Neither have I been able to con- 

 vince myself of the truth of an opinion advanced by these and 



VOL. XXII. NO. XUV. APRIL 1837. Z 



