98 FTLICALS. ADDEES TONGUES. [BOOK i. 



hybrids can be produced in this class of plants. With regard 

 to the anthers of Blume, they are too near the pistils of the 

 same species ; and as to those of Bernhardi, the pistils in other 

 species are situated at so remote a locality, that it is impos- 

 sible to explain how the one could get to the other." (Ray 

 Reports.} 



" The germination of ferns is simple : the shell of the 

 spore bursts regularly or irregularly, and out of it the kernel 

 extends in the form of a foliaceous expansion, which subse- 

 quently forms a bud, whence the plant proceeds under the 

 form which is proper to its nature. This mode of germina- 

 tion possesses some similarity to that of Monocotyledons; 

 but here the evolution of the kernel is a mere state of rapid 

 transition." (Link.) 



In ADDERS TONGUES (Ophioglossaeese), a remarkable race 

 of Ferns, the fertile leaf is rolled up in two lines parallel with 

 its axis or midrib, and at maturity opens regularly by trans- 

 verse valves along its whole length, emitting a fine powder, 

 which, when magnified, is found to consist of particles of the 

 same nature as the spores found in the sporangia of other 

 ferns ; here there are no sporangia, the metamorphosed leaf 

 probably performing their functions. Such is my view, of 

 the structure of Adders Tongues ; but by other botanists it is 

 described as a dense spike of two-valved capsules, dehiscing 

 transversely. 



2. THE LYCOPODAL ALLIANCE.* 



( Clubmosses, Pepperworts.} 



CLUBMOSSES (Lycopodiacese) are leafy plants with the habit 

 of gigantic mosses. Their leaves and stem have the same 

 structure as those plants, except that the former are some- 

 times provided with stomates, and the .latter with a central 

 bundle of vessels. Their organs of reproduction are kidney- 

 shaped two-valved cases, usually called thecce, sporocarpia, 

 conceptacles, or capsules, either, 1. filled with minute powder- 

 like granules, which, in consequence of lateral compression, 



* See Vegetable Kingdom," p. 68. 



