THE GERMINAL FROND. 



141 



This subject has been discussed with much judgment by an eminent English 

 botanist, Mr. Henfrey, who has given 

 the following account in the Gardener't 

 Magazine for 1851, p. 23 : 



" The germinal frond must be taken 

 very young, while yet not more than 

 one-eighth of an inch in diameter, and 

 before any sign of the first leaf appears 



Fig. 271. Fig. 272. 



Fig. 273. 



Fig. 274. 



Fig. 275. 



Figs. 271, 272, 273, 274, 275. Successive stages of development from the spore (Fig. 271). In Fig. 

 275 are seen two of the antheridia. 



rising from its upper surface. The little frond will then be found in the shape of a rounded 



Fig, 277. 



Fig. 278. 



qoo* 



Fig, 276. 



Fig. 279. 



Fig. 276. A germinal fropd (it is a simple cellular plate like the leaf of a Moss) : a are two ovules ; 

 b a number of antheridia ; c root fibrils. 



Fig. 277. A more highly magnified view of a piece of the frond with two antheridia, one con- 

 taining the vesicles (b), the other burst (d). 



Fig. 278. Side view of b in the last figure. 



Fig. 279. The same bursting tp discharge the vesicles, which again discharge the spiral filaments e. 



or heart-shaped disk, formed of delicate green cells (Fig. 276) ; a single layer, except in 



