•20-2 Mr. Griffith on the Ovulum q/'Santalum, 



will be still more so, if the albumen be ultimately found to be derived from 

 the female. 



M. Schleiden, on the contrary, is of opinion, that between the spore and the 

 embryo there is an affinity amounting to fundamental unity; and Mr. Valen- 

 tine not only holds the same opinion, but, overlooking the obvious difficulties 

 to which M. Schleiden has adverted as presented by some of the higher 

 Cryptogenic families, denies to these plants entirely a provision similar to 

 that of the pistillum of Phanerogams*. 

 In the present state of our knowledge, I should be extremely unwilling to 



■ The question of the sexuality of Acotyledonous plants is so intimately connected with the subject 

 of vegetable embryology, that I trust I shall be pardoned for hazarding a few observations derived from 

 personal experience : it is a question which the hypothesis of M. Schleiden necessitates him, as it were, 

 to disbelieve. 



The more developed Acotyledonous plants, which I take to be Fillers, Lycopodinea, Isoetes, Marsilea, 

 Sakinia, Azolla, Hepatic* and Musci, appear to me to present two very distinct types of organization, 

 at least as regards the female organ. In one type there is an evident pistillum containing an ovulum, 

 and this appears to be generally connected with limited development of the organs of vegetation. In 

 the other there is no evident pistillum, nor any palpable point on which analogy would indicate that 

 the male influence would be exerted. That type is also remarkable for the development of the organs 

 of vegetation. 



In Unci, the evidence of the mutual action of the sexes appears to me very satisfactory ; the usual 

 ^coloration of the stigma and canal of the style is distinctly observable, and is followed by changes, 

 confined however, to change of situation, affecting the cell pre-existing in the cavity of the ovarium, 

 and wh,ch ,s analogous to a Phamogamous ovulum. In Hepatic, particularly the vaginulate species, 

 the circumstances would appear to be the same: and iu the evagiuulate ones, and perhaps 1 in 



n of p z^rzr made by the chan - ** the «— • - -—■ - - 



fori Weft. ^7 Ti Ded ; Wl f h " "" °" ly ° ther ^ WUch W-» •» « pMligeroos, 

 loth nrlt ,h ^ ^ " *"*■ "" ^ ! " «"* i-luere are two. and 



both present the appearance so generally characteristic of fertilization. The ehauges subsequent to 

 tb,s are however very different, giviug rise in one pistillum to the supposed male ^"0 her o a 

 senes of sporules derived from the characteristic dividing process 



on v difficulty exists In th* *„*u . g e tound to be correct. The 



botanists Tto ^t « ti TT"* "~ "*" *' ^ * *"-' ^ > 



iecion , they T^Z^ZZ^^ Z«ZT T" " ^ ^ " ' ^ * 



^ery lately an absorptive process was generally adopted to 



