Dr. A. de Bary on the Germination of the Lycopodiese. 191 



the ninth day after sowing, I discovered among them a prothal- 

 liuin formed of seven cells. Some decayed and perished during 

 the winter. In March 1856, I procured new fragments of the 

 native soil of the same Lycopodium ; abundance of spores existed 

 scattered in it naturally ; and towards the end of May I was able 

 to find among them at least five-and-twenty in moi*e or less 

 advanced states of germination. 



Just as occurs in the Cryptogamia analogous to those of which 

 we are speaking, the internal cell of the tetrahedral spore of 

 Lycopodium inundatum swells and becomes elongated at the 

 moment of gei-mination, takes the form of a nearly round 

 vesicle, and emerges from the exosporium, which bnrsts and 

 opens widely into three lobes. 



At a later period this vesicle divides, by means of a plane 

 septum, into two hemispherical secondary cells ; one of these, 

 the inferior {basilar cell), remains undivided, scarcely enlarges, 

 and remains surrounded by the remains of the exosporium ; the 

 superior cell {apical cell), on the contrary, determines, by its 

 development and successive division into several cells, the ulte- 

 rior growth of the plant. 



This same superior cell developes, internally and at several 

 successive epochs, alternating septa, inclined to either side, and 

 intersecting reciprocally at very open angles ; by this means it 

 step by step gives birth to a terminal cell of the second degree, 

 and an intermediate cell, disk-shaped, semicircular, and narrowed 

 towards the middle of the cellular body taken as a whole. 



Each of these median cells soon exhibits a septum parallel to 

 its external surface, which divides it into two unequal cells, — 

 one axile, small and cuneiform ; the other peripherical, large and 

 semi-annular. 



The final result of these divisions and multiplications of the 

 cells is a body composed of a central series of short irregular 

 cells, surrounded laterally by two peripherical cells, and covered 

 at the base by the latter, and at the summit by a terminal cell. 



While the germ is still only composed of two cells (I have 

 seen it in this state only once), it contains, like the spore, scarcely 

 anything but large, colourless, oleaginous drops. These subse- 

 quently disappear. The peripherical cells become filled in great 

 part with a clear liquid ; but a few very minute grains of chloro- 

 phyll are seen applied upon the wall of the primordial utricle. 

 The central or axile cells, on the contrary, are abundantly fur- 

 nished with a granular, turbid plasma, often quite opake, some- 

 times containing chlorophyll, but often colourless. All the cells 

 generally possess a large rounded nucleus. 



The most developed germs that I have seen, presented, inde- 

 pendently of the two extreme cells, four axile cells and four or 



