LECT. IX.] HYBERNACULA. 451 



growth. According to Gaertner all the Algee are 

 propagated by the propago, and not by seeds 

 as Hedwig and other phytologists have asserted. 

 With such names as contending authorities on this 

 subject, may we venture to suggest, that al- 

 though the sexual organs of these plants have not 

 yet been discovered, and although they throw off 

 the propago as lateral progeny, yet they may, 

 also, produce real seeds ? Many of the more per- 

 fect plants are propagated in both ways ; and 

 we know that this occurs even in the animal 

 kingdom ; for the aphis which is first propagated 

 by sexual intercourse continues its species, through 

 several successive generations, by lateral offsets. 



" The GONGYLUS," according to Gaertner, " is 

 " a simple, leafless, somewhat globular, solid 

 " germ attached to the parent under the bark, 

 " and separating spontaneously from it." He ob- 

 serves that it has a close affinity to the tubers 

 found on roots; but differs inasmuch as the tu- 

 ber possesses as it were a multiplied life, so that 

 it may be divided into as many pieces as there are 

 foliaceous gems on its surface, from each of which 

 a new plant will arise. The gongylus consists of 

 cellular matter like the propago, but of a much 

 firmer and more solid consistence, and is always 

 covered with an epidermis. Gaertner supposes that 

 the Fungi, or Mushroom tribes, are altogether pro- 

 pagated by gongyli : but Michelius, Hedwig, and 



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