LtXNEAX SOCIETI OF LOXDOy. 1 5 



certaia species of Sphagnum, such as S. sulsecicndum, tlie male 

 branches are commonly more sleuder, and in distinct tut'ts from 

 the female ; the individual branches of the male which acitually 

 bear the antheridia are commonly larger than the archegonia- 

 bearing branches. 



Amongst Equisetacese the male pi'othallus is always much 

 smaller than the female. This may in part be due to the grow- 

 ing oospores in the latter being for some time dependent upon 

 it for their nourishment; again, in the Heterosporese, such as 

 Selaginella, it is the female which is the larger, and the male 

 which is smaller. 



Turning now to the flowering plants, one finds, as in the 

 others, that though many show no such characters, yet, where 

 secondar}' characters are present, it is the female in which 

 vegetative vigour is most marked. In the Australian grass, 

 JBuchloc dactyloides, a slender graceful male is found, whereas the 

 female is of coarse-leaved, rank growth, the two having long been 

 referred to distinct species. In another Australian grass, Spiiiifex 

 hirsutus, much the same characters are present, but the female is 

 still less like the male, owing to the immense development of the 

 leaves at the extremity of its flowering stem, forming a tuft, often 

 exceeding a foot in diameter. 



In Vallisneria spiralis the male plant is again usually much 

 smaller than the female, although its flowering stem produces 

 many flowers, in distinction to the single one borne by the female 

 form. In Asparagus, though flowers are always somewhat incon- 

 spicuous, the perianth of the male is the larger, although the leaves 

 generally are still more slender and the plant altogether smaller 

 than the female. In Ruscus aculeatus also the leaf-like branches 

 in the female are more narrow, but compensate for this by their 

 greater abundance. 



In the interesting Ficus suhidata, an Indian sjjecies of fio-, 

 there is a marked difference between the sexes, the male being 

 an erect shrub growing on the ground, whereas the female is a 

 semiscandent epiphyte, exceedingly different in appearance. 



Amongst the Orchidete, from the time of Darwin and even 

 earlier, marked differences between the male and female flowers 

 have attracted great attention, and since for years a plant may 

 produce racemes of either male or female flowers alone, the two 

 sexes have often been spoken of as belonging to different genera. 

 Ill the genus Catasetum we find excellent examples of this con- 

 dition ; the female branchlets are usually more robust, bearing 

 fewer flowers, which, with the stem, are more or less of a pre- 

 dominant green colour. The male flowers, borne on a more 

 slender stem, are more numerous, and, with the stem, have 

 commonly some more conspicuous colour, such as red or other 

 vivid tint. 



Cannabis indica well displays the prevailing sexual characters 

 of plants, the male plant being smaller, both as to leaves and 



