. CRYPTOGAMOUS PLANTS. 225 



and if, after they have thus been made to swell up, they be 

 placed upon moist earth, they elongate and ramify, and 

 produce a young plant. This globule first gives birth to 

 articulated and confervoid filaments, analogous to those 

 which are observed on the development of the seeds of 

 Mosses. 



The green globule then is a reproductive organ, but it 

 may be either a monospermous fruit, or a simple tuber- 

 cule analogous to a bulb. This last opinion would seem 

 confirmed by the fact, that in its development the foli- 

 aceous part does not appear to proceed out of an integu- 

 ment as in seeds, but that the seed itself appears to 

 dilate. 



As to the elastic laminae, we cannot positively demon- 

 strate their nature ; on comparing them with stamens, 

 which their general position seems to authorize, it must 

 be confessed that several circumstances have been nesr- 

 lected : — 1st, We have no example of elastic stamens 

 which remain, without being obliterated, till the matu- 

 rity of the fruit ; 2d, We have no example of pollen in 

 the form of globules placed on the external surface of 

 the filaments ; 3d, If the laminae be filaments and 

 their inflated parts anthers, it is at least singular that 

 of four of these anthers two are placed on the side of the 

 globule, not at the point where the stigma is supposed 

 to be. Tn this state of circumstances I have great doubts 

 upon the reality of the character assigned to these 

 organs, and I am almost disposed to consider them as 

 simple elaters analogous to those of the Hepaticae, and 

 intended only to promote the dispersion of the green 

 globules ; and if these latter bodies be true fruits and 

 not tubercules, we might suppose that the fecundating 

 matter is contained with them in the horn or follicle 

 from which we see them issue. 



VOL. II. Q 



