VIII 



THE P TERIDOPH VTA — OF N/0 GL OSS A CE^E 



227 



tion was not a satisfactory one, and the results not conclusive. 

 Although the young plants were so far advanced (Fig, i lo) it 

 was a significant fact that the prothallium still remained alive. 

 A section through the base of the young sporophyte showed 

 the foot, which is extraordinarily large here, and a microscopic 

 examination showed that the peripheral cells of the foot were 

 full of protoplasm, and their nuclei extremely distinct, and the 

 cells were evidently still actively engaged in absorbing food 



Fig. III. — Botrychiiiin Viginiaiiuvi (Sw.). A, Young ; B, older anlheridium, longitudinal sections. 

 A, x6oo; B, X300; C, section of old archegonium, X 300. 



from the prothallium for the support of the sporophyte. The 

 single leaf in these young" plants was not probably the coty- 

 ledon, which had apparently disappeared, and is probably of 

 simpler structure. 



Hofmeister found that in B. hmaria the first two roots 

 were formed before the first green leaf, and that the first three 

 leaves are scale-like. The fourth leaf is the first to appear 

 above the ground, which it only does the second year, or 

 possibly later. The position of the archegonium in this species 



