CRYPTOGAMOUS PLANTS. 99 [ 



the present state of the science, we can affirm that the 

 first of these classes does really exist, it would be as yet 

 imprudent to declare that there are true Agamaa. We 

 can easily understand, in fact, 1st, that the fecundating 

 organ may have escaped, and still continue to escape 

 detection by our microscopes, and it may afterwards be 

 discovered ; 2d, that if the same cavity contain the germ 

 to be fecundated and the fecundating fluid, we might 

 not be able to see the sexual apparatus, and, notwith- 

 standing, fecundation may exist ; 3d, that as in phane- 

 rogamous plants there are some which are reproduced 

 with and without fecundation, it may happen in Crypto- 

 gamous ones, that these two modes of reproduction may 

 also exist, but that reproduction without fecundation 

 may be the most frequent. 



The details into which we shall enter upon the dif- 

 ferent families of the Cryptogamae, will tend to prove 

 that these different reasons of doubt exist in several 

 cases; I regard it impossible, in the present state of 

 things, either to affirm that there are plants absolutely 

 devoid of fecundation, or that all are endowed with it. 

 I admit then the word Cryptogamous, in this sense, that 

 it designates plants in which the fructification is obscure, 

 or perhaps wanting. 



The circumstance, which has most retarded the dis- 

 covery of the sexual organs of the Cryptogamae is, that 

 for a long time, these plants were only studied at the 

 period of maturity ; for it is clear that then we should 

 be no more able to find the male organs in them, than 

 the stamens in phanerogamous plants when their seeds 

 are ripe. It was the celebrated Hedwig who first made 

 this remark, and who has succeeded in finding the male 

 organs of several Cryptogamae, by observing them at the 

 period when they must be perceived, i. e. a long time 

 before maturity. 



