A.CR0G1 v - 



onorations, and RofmeiBter compares the whol Dent plant 



Equi •• •' inn to thi ium of thi x ' III' patii In all I 



the Lyeopod -I 



pro luel ion, and is d from a different 



pro enibi irly anal the Ferna and I 



ondition 

 monosciouB condition in thetw imed familiea Hofmi 



the pro-embryo developed from the large spore is an intermedial 

 the two perfect forma of the plant. 



•• It ia rather difficult to decide upon the real analogic 

 .,1'ti ag plants. The resemblance of Btructvu 



lidiaoftheW nd Hepatic©, and the 'ovules' of the othi 



they must be regardi -1 as analogues, and tin d the former could not well 



plants, but rath. 



I,.- tl i-,-, i analogue of the p< rf< cl pla 



the Fern, &c., and th oi the pro embryo of th i 



pistillidium of tl M can, indeed, hardly be regarded as analo I the 



fruit of a flowering-plant, as in that case the spores would I..- ovules produced 

 after fertilisation ; and, on the other hand, if we consii I lidiaofth U 



u an ovule, which it might be, analogoue to that of the Conifer®, - in which a hu 

 Dumber of embryonal vesicles or rudiments "t embryos are produced after ferti] 

 Hon "ii the branched extremities of the suspensors, then v. 

 analogy between the product of the pistillidium of th.- Moss and that oftheovuh 

 tU'- Fi in. unl. ss we would regard the entire plant of a pert', bt Fern inalogous to 

 the .'\ ale of a ' !onifer. 



■■ Perhaps the time has hardly come for us to arrive at any conclusion on these 

 points. The phenomena in the Ferns and Fquisi I ell as in the Rhi» 



Lyeopod : kin fly, eem to pn sent a serii 



una' 1 1 iiH have been described under the name of 'altei 



generations ' in the animal kingdom ; and seeing the resemblance which t ; 



A . the ovules of the other families, we i an hardly help extend 



the same to them : in whirl: mould have the remarkable phen 



..fa ...in m.1 organism, in which a new individual formin a second 



developed after a process of fertilisation, remains attached organically to th.- j irent, 

 from which it differs totally in all anatomical and physiological characters. I: 

 almost needless to advert r.. the essentia] difference between Buch a case and that 

 th.- occurrence of flower-buds and leaf-buds on one stem in the Phanerogami 

 parts of a single plant, yet po rtain amount of independent individual 



Th. teed from each other by simp don, a kind of gern 



thi Mi capsule, if the .sexual theory be correct, is the result of a t 

 reproductive process." 



In a postscript to th.- above report, Mr. Benfrey makes some fur 

 he particularly alludes to a work by Mr. W. Hofmeister upon the higher Cry] I 



mtains an elaborat bs upon this subject, lie th. 



all hi- previi tatemen . and all the essential particu •■ 



ili, Mettenius, &c, excepting I of the impregnation bj 



filaments or .-pen. . which however he . it warrant:.'' 



"The comparison of the course of development of the M 

 one hand, witli the Ferns, Equisetacese, Rhizocarpese, and l 



.cut between the .1. velopment of th' 

 former and the development of the embryo of the others 

 Bio i t, the i i in within whieh the rudiment of its fruit 

 in structure the archegonium of the Filicoids .in the widest 

 prothallium in the interior of whieh the embryo of the froi 

 In the two great -roup- of the higher Cryptogams, ">i. 

 free in the archegonium, giveB origin ' Bubdii 



M ■ ■ an ; to plant in the Filicoida In neith< i 



division of this i on; in both does the archegonium tx 



filaments do not reach it at the epoch when it bursts opei 



"Mosses and Filicoids thus afford one of the most Btril 

 alternation of two generations widely different in 

 these, produced by the germinating spore, develop, 

 sometimes few. sometimes many. In the central ■ 

 consequence of a fertilisation through the spen 

 becomes developed the eneratdon, d< 



always formed in a number much greater than th..: I rudimentary fruits 

 first generation. 





