.-.) Ml -i \i .1 



Bartramia fontana, Brytun palustre, undulatum, cuspidattim, pun< 

 Hi Tortula ruralis. In Bryum argenteum we sa th< 

 anthi ra constantly drop off, Btrike root, and produce n< w pis 

 myself times ool of number. Still more in point is the experiment 



Mj , -, of > . . w i 1 1 _' the Btellulaa "I Polytrichum commune, containii 

 bodies, when be found that plants cam.- up, which in their nun pri 

 excellent naturalist, Dr. Roth, has mad< -imilai- observations with n 

 Bquarrosum and Bryum argenteum. I' probable, therefore, that th 



anthers are mere gemmae, produced by the superabundano 

 surrounded by succulent filaments.'" I . , in bis Planta ) 



expn Bat b himself thus, •■ Musci sunt < Bexuales et in did 

 gemmae \i\ dubium videatur." 



.in the face of this evidence, Adolpl in the 



bi raality of Moss* -, and in the male functions of the axillary bodii 

 justice, that it appears from Brown's mode of describing Mosses, that h< 

 similar opinion. Dr. Taylor also thinks that the Liverworts show the pn 



s in the most evident manner. (2 ./ .' That the fiask-li 



called pistiUidia are female organs he considers proved by the germinati m 

 brown particles (spores) that an d within them. He admits thai i 



evidence exists to show that the antheridia are mal< ■ 



chai ill whitish liquor, which is rapidly dissolved in the air, uniformly 



cede the pistiUidia, and have fulfilled their office before the a 

 Dr. Montaigne follows on the same Bide - with the sw 



ing assertion that "no body now-a-days ( 1 838) doubts that Mosses and Livi rworts I 

 two sexes." Mr. Vali ntine, in two elaborate papers i Linn. Tram. xvii. 41 ". and xviii. 



dity of some plants at least of the Muscal Allianc 

 ing, however, that the experiments mentioned by Sprengel and Mees 

 factory, tin re being no proof in them that it was the antheridia which gn w ; it n 

 have been the whole mass of the stellate disks in which the antheridia occur. Mr. 

 Valentine relies upon the very important fact, first remarked by himself, I 

 pistillidum, in which the spores are produced, is not in • at the time when 



anthi ridia are in action. Like Mobl and Agardh, he maintains that tbi 

 equivalent : almost identical with pollen grains. " The onlj difl 



he adds, •• that I can find between pollen and booi ul< - is, that the coat of the latfc r 

 a more rigid and opaque texture. From this difference it is that the sporu ■ 

 burst in a sudden manner upon the application of water ; but wh< n they do, th< 



icl< s are discharged loose in the water, precisely in the same ma 

 of pollen." 



upon this point however Mr. Griffith observes, that "it - in mind, 



whereas pollen is the result of a simple separation constituting a pi 

 pendent process ; in Musci, Hepaticas, Salvinidee, the B] 

 pollen, arc the result of a secondary proa bs, d< pendent on a primary one which 

 remarkably analogous to phanerogamic fecundation." 

 Finally, I nger in his account of the anatomy of Riccia i ' 

 anthi ridia and pistiUidia arc alike at first, that the c 



ml retaini d, and that the first perish a while the >« cond is pen 

 xmable to presume that the emission from the antheridia is 



for the formation of sport >. He then I them as n 



It seems dear from all I tements, that the question ol - 



Alliance is undecided. There is no doubt that two verj difl 



ami pedes; but it does not appear to me that we havi - 



I r. Bent to show that the antheridia are mali 



have conjecture and nothing more. All that is ] rovi d is: 1. That the - 



which reproduce the plant, and arc. then dogoui I 



structure of the antheridia and pistiUidia is wholly at variance with t! 



pistils properly so called. 



Mr. Griffith, nevertheless, in an elaborate Memoir on \ 



the Calcutta Journal of .Natural History, adopts in the fulli 



Acrogt n~ have Bex< •■. as w ill appear hen after. 



question i> not, whether there may not be in such planta 



and female principle, or certain organs in which 



resides ; but win ther there is any such structure as that whii b wi 



nil the f plants higher than Aa 



Griffith's very learned and ingenii - 

 - to the existence ofn tial diffei 



all that . 



