REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF FUNGI. 263 



means of adapting this animal to the physical and physio- 

 logical states and conditions under which it is constrained to 

 live, and to perform its part in the accomplishment of that one 

 universal and wise purpose for which this much-despised rep- 

 tile, in conjunction with all other living beings, was designed 

 and created. 



On the Reproductive Organs of certain Fungi. By Frede- 

 rick CuRREY, Esq., M.A. 



The existence of sexual organs in the lower orders of plants 

 is a question which of late years has attracted much attention 

 amongst botanists, and it is one upon which the powers of the 

 microscope have been bi'ought to bear with the happiest 

 results. 



The investigation has already been carried sufficiently far 

 to show that many of the plants hitherto ranked in the Order 

 of the Cryptogamia can with difficulty be denied the right of 

 being considered phanerogamic ; and there seems good reason 

 to hope that before many years have elapsed, the term crypto- 

 yamic will have ceased to be applicable to any portion of the 

 vegetable world. 



It is hardly too much to assert that sexuality is already 

 established in the FiicacecB and Characece amongst the Thal- 

 loqens, and in the Liverworts, Scale-mosses, Urn-mosses, 

 Club-mosses, Horse-tails, and Ferns amongst the Acroyens, 

 although there are not wanting botanists of eminence who 

 either deny the fact, or, at least, admit it only with the doubts 

 of an imperfect faith. 



In Lichens, M. Tulasne has demonstrated the existence of 

 certain organs to whicli he has given the name of sperniogonia. 

 These spermogonia are the small black specks seen on the 

 shields of Lichens, and are small conceptacles, or cases, con- 

 taining a prodigious quantity of minute spore-like processes, 

 to which the name of spermatia has been given. The sper- 

 matia are very minute linear bodies, sometimes curved and en- 

 dowed with molecular movement. They are produced either 

 upon tlie apices of the cellules which form the walls of the sper- 

 mogonium, or sometimes laterally from moniliform filaments 

 or other processes which line the cavity of the spermogonium. 



Tlie functions of the spermatia are as yet unascertained, 

 although from their universal presence, and the circumstance 

 of their appearance prior to the perfect, or the casporous 

 fructification, it is suspected that they may eventually prove 

 to be the male organs of that class of plants. 



