VOL. TIT.] Prorrcd/ii^'^ of Socicfics. 8i 



The President then introduced Mr. Edward Muybridge, who de- 

 Hvered a lecture on "The Science of Animal Locomotion," with 

 lantern illustration of consecutive phases of animal movements and 

 syntethical reproductions by the zoopraxiscope. 



Calii-oi^xia Botanical Clutl February 2j, i8g2. The Vice- 

 President, Mrs. M. W. Kincaid, in the chair. 



Brofessor Douglas H. Campbell delivered a lecture on the Origin 

 of Flowering Plants. The lecturer stated that the ancestral forms 

 of all the higher plants are to be sought among- the tresh-water 

 algcc. Prom these were probably developed forms like the simplest 

 of the existing liverworts, and from these the higher forms, Bryo- 

 phytes, Pteridophytes and Spermaphytes were later derived. 



The structure of the simpler liverworts was briefly sketched and 

 the development and fertilization of the archegonium and the sub- 

 sequent development of the sporogonium described. Attention 

 was called to the motile spermatozoids, and the necessit}' of w^ater 

 in fertilization, as indications of the aquatic nature of the ancestors 

 of these forms. 



Special attention was called to Riccia and Anthoceros as the most 

 primitive in some respects of the liverworts, and the latter was 

 especially spoken of as representing a form like that from which the 

 higher plants have probably come. 



The forms were next taken up, and after showing how the pro- 

 thallium represents the liverwort thallus, and the fern itself the sporo- 

 gonium, attention was called to the gradual reduction of the sexual 

 prothallium and the increasing development of the sporophyte in 

 the higher forms. It was then shown how this was accompanied by 

 the development of heterospery in several groups, resulting finally 

 in one case, at least, in the production of seed-bearing plants. 



Flowers are only groups of special spore-producing leaves, with 

 more or less accessory leaves in the more specialized ones. The 

 simpler flowers are comparable to the spore-bearing leaves oi an 

 Osmunda, for example, or a spike of Equisetum. In the heteros- 

 perous Pteridophytes spores of two kinds were developed, and 

 these in the flowering plants aie the pollen-spoi^es and the embryo- 

 sac. The ovule and anther are simply special forms of sporangia. 



In conclusion the influence of two groups of animals — viz., birds 

 and insects — upon the further evolution of flowering plants were 



