126 



THE CRYPTOGAMIA OR FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 



511, Chara fcetida. 512, 

 Portion of a branch ; the 

 two reproductive organs- 

 a, Globule; b, nucule. 



bearing slender, whorled, leafless branches. The 

 mosses and Hepatiese have filiform stems and 

 branches, erect and creeping. Fern leaves and 

 mushrooms arise on stipes. 



626. Leaves. The ferns arc characterized by 

 their great development of leaves called fronds. 

 They are rarely simple, often pinnatifid, or pin- 

 nate, simply, doubly or triply. Their venation is 

 fork veined and their vernation circinate. The 

 leaves of the mosses and Hepaticae are veinlesa 

 and delicate, mostly ovate and entire, numerously 

 covering the axis. Those of the latter arc often 

 garnished with stipule-like processes called am- 

 phigastria. 



627. Thallus. The vegetative system of the Thallogens consists 

 either of delicate filaments or of flattened membranes, varying in color 

 through every shade and hue. In Marchantia, lichens, and seaweeds it 

 is green, olive or red, and called 

 thallus. It may resemble a leaf 

 or a stem, but its functions are 

 still the same. In size it varies 

 from the microscopic Conferva? 

 to the gigantic seawraclc, a fur- 

 long in length. Its structure is 

 purely cellular and uniform, or, 

 as in Marchantia, in layers. 



628. Mycelium or spawn is 

 the vegetative system of the 

 Fungi, distinguished from thalli 

 by its want of coloring matter 

 in its cells. It consists of 

 meshes of white or colorless 

 filaments, branching and anas- 

 tamosing to form entangled 

 masses pervading the substance 

 in which the Fungus grows. It 

 is far less conspicuous than the fructification (toad-stool, etc.) which 

 ultimately arises from it. 



629. The reproductive organs of the Cryptogamia are the anthe- 

 ridia and archegonia ; and by their reaction spores in various spore- 

 vessels are produced. They have been detected in nearly all the cryp- 

 togamic tribes, and are supposed to represent the stamens and pistils 



51S 522 517 516 513 



Mosses. 513, Polytrichium. 514, Sporansc with 

 calyptra, without calyptra. 515, Sporange (en- 

 larged) with the operculum at top. 516, Mnium, 

 517, Sporange. 518, Bartramia. 519, Sporango 

 witli calyptra. 520, Same mature, open. 521, Pe- 

 ristome, with its teeth. 522, Antheridium and 

 paraphases (a flower) of Polytrichium. 



