282 HANDBOOK OF CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



the fertilised oospliere as the "o6n,"''' a term which seems directly 

 suggested by Oophore or Oophyte. "Ocin" is merely the Greek 

 equivaleDt for egg, the simplest and most convenient term for the 

 result of the union of the sexual elements. Van Tieghem says 

 (' Traite,' 2me ed., p. 26) : — " Le produit de cette combinaison est 

 une cellule nouvelle, dont la membrane ne tarde pas a se couvi'ir 

 d'une couclie de cellulose, qui est callable de developpement 

 ulterieur et qu'on appelle un anif," and he accordingly uses '* oeuf," 

 or egg, in all such cases with admirable results in the way of 

 attaining uniformity, and rendering homologies clear. 



"Oosperm" is used by Messrs. Bennett and Murray for the 

 fertilised oosphere, and this compound is far from deserving the 

 absolute condemnation which justly awaits Carposperm, Zygosperm, 

 &c. Indeed, a valuable independent authority for the use of the 

 term may be found in an unexpected quarter. F. M. Balfour 

 writes (Balfour, Works, Mem. Ed., vol. ii., p. 82): — "It is clear 

 that the ovum after fertilisation is an entirely different body to the 

 ovum prior to that act, and unless the use of the same term for the 

 two conditions of the ovum had become very familiar, a special 

 term, such as oosperm, for the ovum after its fusion with the 

 spermatozoon would be very convenient." The reference here is, 

 of course, to the zoological department of Embryology, and in 

 Professor Haddon's 'Introduction' to that subject the suggested 

 terminology is definitely adopted. Balfour evidently uses oosperm 

 in a very different sense to that in which it is used by the authors 

 of the ' Handbook,' the "sperm" element in the compound plainly 

 referring to the spermatozoon which is incorporated with the 

 oosphere to produce the oosperm. If the term were used with this 

 signification, many of the objections to it would disappear. Better 

 even than "oeuf" or "oon," it would express the combination of 

 the male and female factors in the embryo or potential i^lant. The 

 sexual stages m the life-history of a plant would then appear as 

 follows : — 



1. Sexual generation. =: Oophyte or Oophore. 



2. Sexual apparatus. ? Oogone, J Spermogone, 



(containing (containing 

 oosphere) spermatozoa) 



3. Sexual product. Oo sperm. 



I have dealt with the subject of tciminology at what may seem 

 undue length ; but in the work under review a very high degree of 

 value is attached to it, and the present seems a good opportunity 

 for calling attention to the great importance of securing uniformity 

 in this matter in the two great biological subdivisions, and for 



* The use of "oon" for the fertilised ovum or oosphere would obviate any 

 objection of Mr. Harvey Gibson {loc.cit.) to the word "oophyte," which he 

 describes as " apphcable only to a thallus bearing female reproductive organs," 

 and for which he substitutes the more accurate expression, "gamophyt^." 

 Vines (Encycl. Brit., vol. xxiv.. Ait. Vc.Tctable Kingdom) uses " gametophyte." 



