190 Dr. A. de Bary on the Germination of the Lycopodiese. 



spores upon adult individuals, find their place rather in that 

 other class of Vascular Cryptogams which Griesbach has termed 

 Hydi'opteridese*. To this latter group belong the Rhizocarpese of 

 Metteniust and the genus Isoeies, which, joined to Selaginella, 

 form the family Isoetese (a designation perhaps preferable to 

 that of Selaginelle^e adopted by Mettenius). Thus, in our state 

 of ignorance of their mode of germination, the Lycopodiese oc- 

 cupy an uncertain place between two perfectly definite classes 

 of Cryptogamous plants ; and according as a predominant im- 

 portance is attributed to the development of the organs of vege- 

 tation, or to that of the reproductive bodies, they will constitute 

 a unique family, comprehending at once the Selaginella and the 

 true Lycopodiese, or will be divided into two distinct families, 

 one of which, exclusive of Selaginella, will belong to the Pteridese. 

 The fitness of this division is supported by the opinion formally 

 expressed by Hofmeister, Mettenius, and other observers ; on 

 the other side, it must be admitted, with Spring, that the power 

 of producing macrospores is extremely reduced in the Lyco- 

 podiese in the period of real vegetative life. 



As the spores of the Ophioglossese, those of Equisetum, and of 

 many other lower Cryptogams, after being so often sown in 

 vain, had ultimately, under the influence of favourable circum- 

 stances, manifested their germinative power and unfolded their 

 vegetation, I thought that a similar result might be hoped for 

 with the Lycopodiese. Strongly impressed with this conviction, 

 in the course of last year I instituted, as often as occasion 

 offered, different experiments on the germination of our indi- 

 genous Lycopodiese, and, in my herborizations, sought to dis- 

 cover some of their spores commencing their vegetation. My 

 experiments and my searches have attained scarcely any result ; 

 but I have succeeded in observing the earliest phsenomena of 

 the germination of Lycopodium inundatum. 



In the month of September 1855, ripe and freshly-gathered 

 spores of this Lycopod were sown on the same soil as that which 

 had nourished the parent plant, — namely a gravelly soil clothed 

 with a slimy layer, several lines thick, formed by various Algse, 

 especially by Palmoglcea chlamydospora, Rabenh. (iVlg. exsicc. 

 514). Fragments of this soil were placed in a shallow vessel, 

 and kept in a sufficiently moist state, either in my chamber or, 

 during the winter, in the orangery of the Freiburg Botanic 

 Garden ; the spores were spread over the surface of the slimy 

 coat of Palmoglmi, and some remained uncovered, while others 

 were protected by little bell-glasses. 



The majority of these spores underwent no change ; but from 



* Griesbach, Syst. Bot. p. 170. 

 t Filioes horti Lipsiensis. 



