STRUCTURE.] FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 87 



frond, from which it does not escape, and in which they are, 

 functi officiis, to be found in the shape of withered empty 

 sacs?" 



In the Calcutta Journal, the same author repeats these 

 opinions in a more concise way. " It appears to me," he 

 says, " sufficiently plain, that in the higher Acotyledonous 

 plants, in which I include Filices, Lycopodineae, Isoeteae, 

 Equiseteae, Marsileacese, Salvinidse, Musci, Hepaticae, Cha- 

 raceae, there are at least two modifications of the female organ 

 representing the modifications of the same organ of Cotyle- 

 donous plants. 



The term Pistillum has been applied to the female organ 

 of Mosses by some first-rate botanists, though not without 

 violent opposition from some systematists. Since the exami- 

 nation of Balanophora, its application is, if possible, still more 

 legitimate. In my opinion it is not to be doubted, that not 

 only have Musci and Hepaticae a pistillum, but that this 

 contains an ovulum. 



The analogies presented by the plants which form the 

 subject of this communication, to those Cotyledonous plants 

 in which the ovulum is entirely naked, either, as is supposed 

 to be the case in some, without a carpel leaf, or with that 

 organ in an expanded not a convolute state, are, I think, 

 equally striking. 



It may be worthy also of remark, that in proportion as 

 Acotyledonous plants become, so to speak y less pistilligerous, 

 their vegetative organs appear to be more developed. This 

 is evident if a Fern be compared with a Moss. And it seems 

 to be so closely followed up, that Salvinia which has less, 

 perhaps, of the atropous phaenogamous ovulum than Azolla, 

 has its organs of vegetation considerably more developed." 



If the reader will turn to the words which are here printed 

 in Italics, he will at once perceive upon what inconclusive 

 arguments these opinions are founded. Not the slightest 

 proof is adduced from experiment that the parts called male 

 and female exercise the function of the sexes. No attempt 

 is made, for none could be made, to show that they are ana- 

 logous to the undoubted sexes of Flowering plants, because of 

 their being analogous in structure ; but the whole argument 



