ON THE 



GERMINATION, 

 DEVELOPMENT, AND FRUCTIFICATION 



OF THE 



HIGHER CRYPTOGAMIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



ANTHOCEROS LiEVIS AND PUNCTATUS. 



The young germ-plants as well as the adventitious 

 shoots of Anthoceros form linear flat masses of cellular 

 tissue, the breadth of which continually increases from 

 back to front (PI. I, fig. 1). In the middle of the fore 

 edge a shoot is formed, on both sides of which, in the 

 angles between it and the adjoining parts of the fore edge, 

 new masses of cells are rapidly protruded. These con- 

 stitute, in the first instance, a vigorous median shoot, 

 on the right and left of which, shoots of a more delicate 

 nature are formed almost contemporaneously, which latter 

 in the progress of growth unite on either side with 

 the median shoot (PL I, fig. 7). The new shoots formed 

 by the amalgamation of these actively growing cellular 

 masses unite themselves on either side to the primary 

 shoot, which now constitutes the middle lobe of the fore 

 edge. By the rapid elongation of the new shoots, the 

 primary one increases in breadth, and its original semicir- 

 cular outline (PI. I, fig. 7) assumes that of the segment 

 of a circle (2 *). In the two indentations of the fore 

 edge of each of the new shoots the same process is re- 

 peated, and henceforth the regular ramification of the 

 plant goes on in like manner. At the bottom of the 



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