260 HOFMEISTER, ON 



the normal concealment of the young embryo in the tissue 

 of the prothallium (1. c, p. 106), and even the possibility 

 of the access of the spermatozoa to the archegonia (1. c, 

 p. 78). On the other hand in the ' Bot. Zeitung,' for 

 1849, p. 796, I have given my opinion confirmatory of 

 the principal point in L. Suminski's statements, viz., the 

 regular development of a young plant in the interior of one 

 of the organs called Ovula by L. Suminski. I added that 

 the parting asunder of the four longitudinal rows of cells 

 which form the neck of the archegonimn, is the cause of 

 the opening of the passage which leads to the large cell at 

 the bottom of the female organ, and that Suminski's " En- 

 dosperm " is in fact the young plant. At the same time 

 I called attention to the facts that the antheridia and 

 archegonia of mosses exhibit in their structure the most 

 striking similarity to the like organs in ferns, and that 

 the development of the embryo of the vascular cryptogams 

 coincides in its principal features with that of the fruit in 

 mosses, inasmuch as in both those large groups of plants 

 the fruit is not developed in a continuous course of vegeta- 

 tion from the germination of the spore, but in both families 

 the development suffers a discontinuance ; in an organ 

 which has essentiallv the same structure in both families, a 

 cell originates, in which, after exposure to the access of 

 spermatozoa, an independent cellular body is formed, mor- 

 phologically distinct from the mother-plant, upon which 

 the mosses are dependent for the development of their 

 fruit only, but to which the ferns owe by far the most im- 

 portant part of their vegetative growth. In a work which 

 appeared shortly afterwards ('Lhma3a,' B. xxii, 1850, p. 

 753) Schacht also pointed out that the archegonia of ferns 

 are formed just like those of mosses ; that they are at first 

 closed, and are furnished at the base with a cavity sunk in 

 tlie tissue of the prothallium, which cavity is in communica- 

 tion with the canal which traverses the neck of the organ ; 

 that in the interior of the cavity, and probably inside a cell 

 clothing the cavity, the embryo is formed. Like myself, 

 Schacht considers that the filiform mucilaginous bodies in- 

 side the closed canal, which L. Suminski looked upon as 

 transformed spermatozoa, are the products of the transfer- 



