BEITISH MOSSES. 19 



with the leaves, the stem, or the epidermis of our flowering 

 plants, whilst the fibro-vascular bundles of the sporogone 

 of the Polytrichum, and the stomata on the .apophyses (or 

 swollen bases of the capsule) of some Mosses will belong 

 to the same generation which, in the vascular cryptogams 

 and phanerogams, produces similar organs. (4) That 

 the great chasm in the systematic arrangement of the 

 vegetable kingdom between the Mosses and the ferns 

 is thus accounted for by their belonging to different 

 generations, so that the ferns are not in any sense 

 descendants of the Mosses, but only collateral relatives, 

 as thus : 



Ferns. 



Mosses. 



Algae. 



(5) That, consequently, the Mosses not only represent the 

 highest development known of the cellular cryptogams, 

 but the highest point in one line of development, in which 

 the oophytic generation took the lead in importance ; 

 whilst the vascular cryptogams and phanerogams are the 

 results of another and more successful line of development, 

 in which the sporophytic generation took the lead as the 



prominent part in the life-history. 



B 2 



