840 



could be proved to be exerted by them upon the young sporangia, 

 their function as anthers was denied ; although it was at the same 

 time admitted they had a certain analogy with them, whence they 

 were, indeed, called antheridia. My own researches, namely, showed 

 that the spores of the higher Cryptogamia do not, as had been pre- 

 viously supposed, exhibit a resemblance in respect to their develop- 

 ment and structure, to the seeds of the Phanerogaraia, but that the 

 most perfect agreement exists between them and the pollen-grains of 

 the Phanerogamia. From this it necessarily, yet strangely, appeared 

 that organs of perfectly like structure fulfilled the function of germs 

 in one part of the Vegetable Kingdom, and in the other part consti- 

 tuted the male, impregnating organs; but little as the formation of a 

 pollen-grain depends upon an impregnation, no one circumstance 

 showed itself in the development of the spore, at all more resulting 

 fi-om the co-operation of an impregnating organ. Still more doubtful 

 did the theory of the impregnation of the Cryptogamia necessarily 

 become, when Nageli made the discovery, in the Ferns, of antheridia 

 in many respects resembling those of the Mosses, which were not 

 formed upon the full-grown plant at the same time as the rudiments 

 of the sporangia, but occurred upon the germ-plant {pro-emhryo), 

 while the perfect plant was devoid of them. 



" Under these circumstances, Schleiden seemed to be warranted in 

 characterizing the effort to discover impregnating organs in the Cryp- 

 togamia, as a mania. But by good luck, certain men who had this 

 mania did not allow it to lead them astray in their researches, and as 

 often happens, nature this time proved so rich that, not indeed was 

 what had been sought found, but instead of this a series of conditions, 

 the existence of which was previously altogether unsupected. The 

 researches relating to this point are, it is true, still far from their com- 

 pletion, since at the present moment nothing more than a preliminary 

 notice of isolated conclusions already arrived at can be given ; but 

 these, although isolated, cause us to expect with certainty in this field 

 a series of the most striking discoveries. 



" The Mosses have served for a very long period as the main props 

 of the view that two sexes and an impregnation occur in the higher 

 Cryptogamia. Not only was attention naturally called in these to the 

 constant occurrence of the antheridia, and their great development, 

 but trustworthy experience, formerly of Bruch, more recently of 

 Schiraper (Rech. s. 1. Mousses, 55), demonstrated that Mosses which 

 have antheridia and the rudiments of sporangia upon the same stem 

 always bear fruit, while dioecious Mosses never set fruit in localities 



