242 Dr. L. Radlkofer on Fecundation in the Vegetable Kingdom, 



sei'vations have in many cases confirmed the earlier conjectures ; 

 not in all groups of plants, however, have they demonstrated 

 the existence of sexes. This applies to the Fungi and Lichens 

 in particular. We shall endeavour in the following pages to 

 expound the results of these observations in systematic order, 

 making reference at the same time to the opinions of the older 

 writers. 



1. Fungi. 



Micheli had already discovered those organs, terming them 

 sometimes ' filamenta^ and sometimes ' stemones,' which 

 Gleditsch, Bulliard, and some later observers regarded as homo- 

 logous with the stamens of the higher plants. ^licheli* him- 

 self had ascribed to them the office of keeping apart the ' lamellse' 

 of the Agarici, so as to prevent the seeds decaying between 

 them. 



These organs, which have been observed in various Hymeno- 

 mycetes, are cylindrical tubular cells, standing on the hymenium 

 itself between the basidia and the paraphyses, and containing 

 colourless granular fluid. The granules display molecular 

 motion. 



According to Montagnef, their contents are ultimately dis- 

 charged, and appear at the points of the cells in little round 

 drops. He ascribes to the stickiness of this liquid the adhesion 

 of the spores detached from basidia, to their cells, without de- 

 cidedly adopting the opinion of Corda, that the spores are thereby 

 fecundated. Corda J regarded these ' granule-bearing utricles,^ 

 from the analogy of their structure and contents, as organs 

 representing anthers, ' antheridia,^ In the third volume of his 

 ' Icones Fungorum^,' he altered his opinion, and thought it 

 better to compare these organs rather with the simple pollen- 

 cell than with the elaborately constructed anthers ; hence he gave 

 them the name of ' polliuaria.^ He assures us that their appear- 

 ance is anterior to the development of the basidia, that the spores 

 are not formed until the period when the poUinaria begin to 

 discharge their contents, and that the latter disappear soon after, 



* P. A. Michelius, Nova Plant. Genera juxta Toumefortii methodum 

 disposita. Florent. 1729, pp. 126, 133. tab. fiS. l, 73. i. k. l, 76. a. b. 

 See also Hedwig, Theoria General, et Fructiticat. Plantar. Cryptogam. 

 Linnsei. Petropol. 17^^^, p. 130. 



t C. Montagne, Organogi-aphy and Physiology of the Class Fungi. 

 Transl. by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. ix. 



X A. J. Corda, Ueber Micheh's Autheren dcr Fleischpilze. Flora, 1S34, 

 i. p, 113; Icoues Fnngor. torn. ii. p. 35. tab. 15. tig. 124. 4. q. f Prague, 

 1838.) 



§ Ic. Fung. t. iii. p. 44 et seq. (Prague, 1839.) 



