THE CRYPTOGAMIA OB FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 

 525 



127 



Hepaticae. 523, Marchantia, sterile plant. 5245, Fertile plant. 526, Vertical section of 

 the fertil-receptacle ; 527, of a perianth, showing the sporange bursting. 528, One of the elatorc 

 with four spores. 529, Portion of it highly magnified, 



of the flowering plants. In the mosses, liver- 

 worts, etc., they appear only on the full-grown 

 plant ; in the ferns, Equisetaceae, etc., they ap- 

 peal' only on the prothallus, the earliest growth 

 of the spore, and here the archegone gives birth 

 to an embryo, whence at length the true fern 

 arises, while the prothallus dies away. 



630. SPORES. These 

 are the true reproductive 

 germinating bodies of the 

 Cryptogams. They con- 

 sist each of a single cell, 

 often exceedingly minute, 

 and produced in immense 

 numbers. The cell -wall 

 of the spore may be sim- 

 ple (Botrytis) or double, 

 as if a cell within a cell 

 (ferns). But the spores 



are often apparently tearing open th 



double or 2-celled Hich- (e); c ' pileus; "' mycelium ' 588> Portion of tbe gills ' 539 ' 



a V CU Basidia and spores from the nice (magn. 400 diam.). 540, 



Cns), Or 4-Celled, or 6, 8, Cyathus ; 541, Section. 542, One of the conceptacles. 543, 

 Or many-Celled. These Penicilium (mildew). 544, Mucor ; a, mycelium. 



compound spores are in fact spore-vessels inclosing several spores yet 

 immature, and called sporidia or theca-spores. The spores or sporidia 

 are often inclosed in still larger cells called the sac. 



631. ENDOSPORES AND EXOSPORES. Spores are developed either in 

 the interior of the parent cell or on the outside of it, and hence the di- 



540 

 ?nngi. 537, -Agaric 



539 537 



s (Mushroom) in various stages: , 

 b, annul us. the remains of the veil 



