270 (il.IMPSES IXTO PLAXT-LIFE 



thallium, Gr. protos, first, t/ialios, a branch) 

 i^row'ing upon the earth like an exceedingly 

 delicate leaf. From the underside of this green 

 film a few ver)' fine root-like hairs (rhizoids, Gr. 

 rhi:~a, a root) are developed; very soon with a. 

 microscope we shall be able to discern upon the 

 surface of this structure a few little projections. 

 In one of these is developed a flask-shaped mass 

 of cells farchegonium, Gr. arcliegoios, first of a 

 race), in the other (antheridium, diminutive of Gr. 

 imtJicra^ an anther) some minute bodies (anthero- 

 zoides, Gr. aiit/icra and rjooid, a minute life) with 

 tails ; these escape from the covering and wriggle 

 about very much like tinv animalcules until finally 

 they come into contact with the flask-shaped open- 

 ing before mentioned. These tailed structures are 

 something like pollen grains in their function, only 

 they differ from pollen grains, which are passive, 

 by being endowed with the power of motion ; the 

 result of their fusion with the flask-like body is to 

 fertilise the germ cell (oospore, Gr. oon, an egg) in 

 that structure, and from the germ cell so fertilised 

 is developed an embr}'o from which at once springs 

 the young fern plant. The first leaf grows froni 



