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to be indistinguishable except by the expert microscopist. 

 Hence our spore, as we have indicated, is a far simpler 

 starting point, and it is only later on, when the little scale 

 is full size, that what we may term the true reproductive 

 cells, male and female are engendered, the union of two 

 of which into one leads to the formation of a new genera- 

 tion. Now the curious point is this, each kind of cell, viz. 

 that which forms the male factor (antherozoid) and that 

 of the female one (archegonium), which lies embedded in 

 the heart-shaped scale near the indentation, inevitably is 

 engendered like all cells with the power of splitting up and 

 forming others, but at the crucial point, when its sexual 

 character is determined, half of the contained nucleus or 

 vital centre is thrown out or eliminated, so that eventually 

 both kinds of cells, male and female, are practically only 

 halves so far as their vital capacity is concerned, and this 

 capacity can only be restored by the subsequent union of 

 one with the other in the act of fertilization. Thus a 

 complete cell is again formed, now a truly reproductive 

 one, containing the combined energies of two parents 

 instead of being a simple structural continuation of one 

 and the same, as is the case with asexual buds. This 

 previous elimination of part of the cell contents to make 

 room for the subsequent complimentary half is a wonderful 

 provision of Nature. Without it clearly there could be no 

 chance of combination on sexual lines. 



C. T. D. 



A FRENCH HARTSTONGUE. 



As involving an interesting point in connection with 

 spore sowing, we give a translation from the Revtu Horticole 

 of February ist, 1914, as follows : — 



** The reading of the article which you have published 

 in your issue of January ist, 1914, on Scolopendrium vulgar^ 

 sagittato grandiceps, induces me to communicate to your 

 subscribers the following personal observations, and to 



