44 Morphology 



that besides root, stem, and leaf, other members can be 

 recognized which claim equal morphological value, con- 

 spicuous among them being the sporangium, pronounced as 

 a member sui generis by Goebel, and the sporangiophore, 

 claimed as such by Bower. The leaves of mosses and those 

 of plants higher in the scale were seen not to be homologous 

 structures, originating as they do on alternate phases of the 

 plant-bod}^. 



Mention may be made of the investigations of several 

 botanists in this wide field. Especially important were the 

 researches of Goebel on the sporangia of the Pteridophyta, 

 published in 1880 and 1881, and the still more elaborate 

 investigations by Bower of the spore-producing members of 

 archegoniate plants, which appeared at intervals during 

 the last seven years of the century. These are worthy of 

 comparison with the discoveries of Hofmeister fifty years 

 before, leading as they did in the new century to his masterly 

 treatise on the origin of a land flora. Leitgeb's great work 

 on the liverworts was a feature of the middle of the period, 

 appearing between 1874 and 1882. Campbell's researches 

 on the Bryophyta and Pteridophyta towards the end of 

 the century led to the production of his well-known volume 

 on the Mosses and Ferns. 



Results of the very greatest importance attended the 

 study of the fossils, especially those of the coal measures. 

 Williamson and Scott in England, Renault and Zeiller in 

 France, Solms-Laubach in Germany, stood out conspicuously 

 among a crowd of other workers. These results included the 

 elucidation of many points of affinity among the still 

 existing forms and of several obscure relations of phylogeny. 



Taxonomists were little by little successful in framing 

 more satisfactorily the natural system of classification 

 which had been so long desired, though much still remained 

 to be done when the century closed. The period was 

 marked by a great extension of knowledge of the floras of 



