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mains) be placed anywhere in their vicinity they will at 

 once steer towards it unmistakably, so that either taste or 

 smell is fairly established as existing in these minute 

 creatures. Failing, however, such extraneous attraction, 

 there is another and a normal one, which produces the 

 same effect. Beneath the scale, and therefore in close 

 proximity to the swimming antherozoids we have de- 

 scribed, there is produced a little cluster of excrescences of 

 another kind. These consist of larger cylindrical teat-like 

 hollow projections, and in the thickened cushion formed in 

 the prothallus at the indentation of the heart, and upon 

 which cushion these projections are formed, there lies 

 embedded at the base of each what is practically an 

 embryo seed. The cavity in the hollow projection or arche- 

 gonium is open down to this embryo, and when the time 

 for fertilization comes a minute exudation of precisely this 

 malic acid aforesaid occurs, and as a result the little swarm 

 of antherozoids make their way in that direction, cluster 

 round the archegonia, and sooner or later one of them finds 

 its way down the tube to the embryo seed, fuses with it, 

 and the fertilization is effected. The fertilized cell then 

 proceeds to break up into many on definite constructive 

 lines and in a short time a root and primary frond are 

 produced and the young fern is fairly launched into 

 existence. 



A remarkable feature as distinguishing ferns from 

 flowering plants is that while in the latter the antherozoid 

 is transformed into a fertilizing cell which the pollen 

 grain, after adhering to the stigma, carries down by means 

 of a tube to the unfertilized seed in the distant ovary, 

 the motile and sentient antherozoid cannot be dis- 

 tinguished from the spermatozoid of the animal world 

 which performs the same function. Both equally consist 

 of a minute reproductive cell to which is attached a tail 

 and cilia as a means of locomotion. No one who has been 

 fortunate enough to witness the evolution and actions of 

 a swarm of fern antherozoids can fail to be deeply 



