PRINGSHEIM, ON ALGZ. 175 
implanted itself, a sort of ambulatory testicle for which I can 
find no comparison. The act of fecundation takes place, 
after the fall of a little operculum from the androspore, by 
the introduction of a spermatozoon, or Saamenkirper, as it is 
called by M. Pringsheim, into the mass of endochrome 
(chromule) of the female cell. This introduction is effected 
through the lateral opening existing at the summit of the 
fecundating tube, and which performs the part of a micro- 
pyle. Before this act, the female cell, in order to permit the 
entrance and action of the spermatozoon destined to com- 
municate the germinating faculty to the spore, remains open, 
but no sooner is the act accomplished, than the cell surrounds 
itself with a second membrane which prevents any further 
intrusion.” 
Such are the facts observed by M. Pringsheim. But, adds 
M. Montagne, “we must not forget that it is to French 
naturalists we are indebted for the first information on these 
interesting questions. It was a member of this Academy, 
the illustrious Reaumur,* who first thought of seeking for 
the two sexes in the Algze, and but little more would have 
given the honour of this discovery to him. It was nearly a 
century and a half after his fruitless researches, that two 
botanists more fortunate, M. Decaisne and M. Thuret, suc- 
ceeded in establishing the existence of antherozoids in the 
same receptacles of the Fuci where Reaumur had vainly 
sought for and thought he had found male fiowers. Since 
then, the Academy of Sciences, in proposing as the subject 
for the grand prize in natural history, in 1847, the study of 
the zoospores and the antheridia of the Algae, excited 
renewed efforts on the part of M. Thuret, and of MM. Derbés 
and Solier—efforts which have been rewarded, and which 
have given a new impulse to these studies, the effect of 
which we now see in the observations of many phytologists, 
amongst others of M. Pringsheim, and of which it is as im- 
possible to calculate the consequences as to limit the term. 
“J will add, in conclusion, that all observations published 
up to this time on those families of the vegetable kingdom 
in which species of the most simple organization are met 
with, goes to prove that the law which governs the function 
of reproduction is becoming more and more generalised, and 
that, with some modifications dependent on special conditions, 
it is common alike in plants and animals.” 
* Reaumur, “ Description de fleurs et de graines de divers Fucus,” &e., 
‘Mém. de l’Acad. des Sc.,’ 1711, p. 381, and 1712, p. 21. 
