96 FILICALS. [BOOK i. 



were destitute of such organs, it has been considered indis- 

 pensable that they should be found ; and, accordingly, while 

 all seem to agree in considering the sporangia as female 

 organs, a variety of other parts have been dignified by the 

 title of male organs : thus, Micheli and Medwig found the 

 latter in certain stipitate glands of the leaf; Stsehelin, Hill, 

 and Schmidel, in the elastic ring; Koeleruter, in the indusium ; 

 Gleichen, in the stomates ; and Von Martius, in certain 

 membranes enclosing the spiral vessels. 



Blume, Sprengel, Presl, and especially Link, imagine the 

 anthers of ferns to be long clavate threads, separated by septa 

 into articulations, generally simple, rarely ramified ; the last 

 articulation being thicker, and filled with a delicate granular 

 mass. This mass is said to be at times exuded at the last articu- 

 lation, when it surrounds it as a crust. Such threads are fre- 

 quently longer than the sporangia, and are easily distinguished 

 from the latter when young. Some botanists think it probable 

 that these may really be the stamens of ferns. Link, who 

 says he has found them, after frequent search, in most of the 

 ferns which he subjected to microscopical examination, has 

 published some beautiful drawings of them. There is not, 

 however, at present, the slightest evidence to show that they 

 possess any male properties. 



The late Colonel Bory de St. Vincent contended that im- 

 pregnation may take place in plants without the agency of 

 pollen, and he affirmed that hybrid ferns exist ; which, if true, 

 would render it impossible to deny the existence, in this large 

 order, of sexual organs ; and, in that case, the threads de- 

 scribed by Link might be supposed to perform the office of 

 stamens ; but the latter botanist has not availed himself of 

 the supposed fact of hybrid ferns being producible. On the 

 contrary, in the following observations he entirely disbelieves 

 that statement, as I do : 



"The remarkable phenomenon which M. Martens first 

 observed at Lowen, in the botanical garden, that an inter- 

 mediate species of fern grew where Gymnogramma calome- 

 lanos and chrysophylla were situated, has also been observed 

 by Bernhardi in Erfurt (Ottos and Dietrichs Flora, 1840, pp. 

 249, and 325). A fern has grown in the botanical garden of 



