and its relation to that in the Animal. Kingdom. 345 



polleu-grains — not, however, in the same sense as by Linnreus— 

 by Valentine* and Schlcidenf, so long as the latter regarded 

 the pollen-grain as the vegetable ovum. 



The anthcridia consist, in the LivenvortsJ, of an ellipsoidal 

 mass of small cubic cells, which arc enclosed by a layer of larger 

 cells containing chlorophyll ; sometimes they arc imbedded in 

 the frondosc stem (Riccia, Pellia), or on a special receptacle [Mur- 

 chantiea) ; sometimes they are borne on small cellular pedicels 

 on the frond {Fossombronia), or on the axils of the leaves (leafy 

 Jungennanniea:). In the Mosses § their structure is the same, 

 but their form is in general more cylindrical, their place at the 

 end of the stem (of the shoot). In the interior of each of those 

 cubic cells, which, when the antheridium is perfectly rijie, separate 

 from their fellows and become absorbed, is formed, nearly filling 

 it, a lenticular vesicle (daughter-cell ? — see on this point Niigeli jj, 

 who calls it a ' seminal utricle' = samen-blaschen) , in which is 

 developed a spirally-coiled spermatozoid^. After the escape of 

 the vesicle from the opened apex of the antheridium, each sper- 

 matozoid is set free, by rupture or solution of the vesicle, and 

 moves about in the water by the help of two long cilia. 



Schmidel^*, to whom we are indebted for the knowledge of the 

 anthcridia of Liverworts, detected the motion of the dischai'ged 

 contents of the anthcridia of Fossomhronia pusilla, without clearly 

 perceiving the spermatozoids themselves ; the same was the case 

 Avith Nces v. Esenbeck in respect to Sphagnum capillifoliumff. 

 The latter regarded the vesicles, set in motion by the still en- 



* Trans. Linn. Soc. xvii. London, 1837. 



t Grundz. wiss. Botanik. 



X Vide on this jioint the excellent works of — 



Nees V. Esenbeck, Xatiirgescb. d. eiirop. Lebermoose. Berlin, 1833. 



G. W. BischofF, Bemerk. lib. die Lebermoose. Nova Acta A. C. L. C. 

 xvii. pt. 2. p. 924. 



J. B. W. Lindenberg, Monogr. der Kiccien. Nov. Act. A. C. L. C. xviii, 

 pt. l.p. 392. 



C. M. Gottsche, Ueb. Haplomitr. Hookeri. Nova Acta, xx. pt. 1. p. 293. 



Hofmeister, Yergleich. Untersuch. &c., hob. Krypt. Leips. 1851. 



Tbnret, Recb. sur les Antheridies des Cryptog. Ann. des Sc. nat. 3 ser. 

 xvi. (1851). 



§ See W. P. Schimper, Recb. anat. et morpbolog. sur les Mousses. 

 Strasbiirg, 1848. 



Thuret, /. c. 



Hofmeister, I. c, and Botan. Zeit. 1849, p. 793. 



II Zeitscbr. f. wiss. Botanik, Heft 3 & 4. Zurich, 1846, p. 105. 



^ Schacht believes that be has certainly observed that the spiral filaments 

 are produced from the nuclei of the cells, of which one exists in each of the 

 daughter-cells formed in fours inside the antheridium-cells. Vide Pflan- 

 zenzelle. BerUu, 1852, pp. 107, 112; Ueb. Antherid. der Leberm. Bot. 

 Zeit. 1852, p. 155. 



** Icones Plant, ed. 2. Erlang. 1793, i. p. 85, no. 5. pi. 22, fig. 8. ■ 



tt Flora, 1822, B. i. p. 33. pi. 1. 



