ORGANS OP REPRODUCTION. 



375 



ductive organs of the Cryptogamous Plants by using the same 

 terms in the different families for homologous organs. 



The oosporangia or oophoridia are usually two-valved cases 

 {fig 795 and 798) with four lobes, each of which contains one 

 large spore. The oophoridium is commonly only one-celled, 

 but in some genera it is two, three, or many-celled. 



The antheridia or pollen- sporangia are somewhat reniform, 

 two-valved cases {fig. 796 and 797), containing a large num- 

 ber of small spores ^microspores), in which spermatozoids are 

 ultimately produced. 



In Lycopodium and some other Lycopodiacese, only one kind 

 of spore case has been found, which is of the nature of the anther- 

 idium or pollen-sporangium. 



The large spores are considered by Hofmeister and others, as 

 the analogues of the ovules. The antheridia are therefore to 

 be considered as the male organs, and the oophoridia as the 

 female. 



In germination, the large spore produces a pro-thallus in its 

 interior, thus resembling the Marsileaceae ; in this archegonia 

 are soon developed, in which an embryo, and ultimately a new 

 plant is produced. 



5. Mdsci or Mosses. — The reproductive organs of this vast 

 order of Cryptogamous Plants are of two kinds ; these are called 

 antheridia {fig. 799), and archegonia or pistillidia {fig. 800) 



Fig. 799. 



Fig. 800. 



Fig. 799. Antheridium.n, 

 of the Hair-Moss (.Po- 

 lytrichum), containing 

 a number of cells, c, in 

 each of which there is 

 a single phytozoon or 

 spermatozoid. p. Para- 

 physes, surrounding the 



antheridium. Fig. 



800. Archegonium or 

 pistillidium of a moss. 



They are surrounded by leaves, usually of a different form and 

 arrangement to those of the stem, Avhich are called perichceiial 

 {fig. 802, f), and in some Mosses they have, in addition to the 

 perichsetial leaves, another covering formed of three or six 

 small leaves, of a very different appearance to them, termed 

 perigonial, and constituting collectively a perigone. The anther- 

 idia are regarded as the male organs, and the archegonia as the 

 female. 



The antheridia and archegonia sometimes occur in the same 

 B B 4 



