86 FLOWEELESS PLANTS. [BOOK i. 



allot to them the performance of such opposite functions as 

 those usually attributed to them. 



The true male may, perhaps, be found in the cordiform, 

 fleshy lamina above the receptacle of the spores, from which 

 it is separated by a lamina, perhaps analogous to the indusium. 



The transition between the two types exists in Anthoceros, 

 which, in the development of its anthers and in habit, has much 

 in common with the pistilligerous type. In this genus the 

 male influence is first exerted on the surface of the frond, and 

 thence is extended through the upper parenchyma to that 

 part of the substance of the frond from which the reproduc- 

 tive organ is to originate. So far as I know, nothing like a 

 pistillum appears to exist : and though there is a calyptra, it 

 has nothing, except situation, in common with the calyptra 

 of Musci and Hepaticae, being only that portion of the paren- 

 chyma between the surface of the frond and the spot whence 

 the young reproductive organ has originated. 



I take it to be a valuable example, inasmuch as it shows, 

 if my explanation be correct, that the male may not only act 

 successfully without a pistillum, or any similar co-existing 

 body, but that it may act mediately. Consequently, Ferns 

 are easily, and I think fairly, explainable, provided the glan- 

 dular hairs are allowed to be the males. And in what do 

 they differ from the anthers of certain Musci and Hepaticse, 

 or from the anthers of Phsenogamous plants, when they are 

 cellular, undivided bodies containing grumous molecular 

 matter ? In regard to points like these, most botanists have, 

 like some zoologists, pitched upon one standard of organisa- 

 tion, and that at the wrong end of the scale. But those who 

 look for a smaller degree of complication in low organisations, 

 or for a greater degree of reduction to the elementary sub- 

 stances, will, I think, not only admit that the anthers of all 

 the above families, so far as they have been well observed, 

 have a marked correspondence with, but that they are also 

 analogous to, very young anthers of Phanerogamous plants. 

 I might ask what they have in common with gemma ? Is the 

 structure of a gemma compatible with a cellular sac contain- 

 ing a grumous matter ? Is the function of a gemma more 

 compatible with such a sac, often inclosed in a cavity in the 



