IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM, 51 



known as the " fruit" — which, whether more or less compli- 

 cated, has always this remarkable peculiarity, that it is an 

 apparatus for the multiplication of gemiinating particles or 

 vspores — has been compared by some authors with altematioTi 

 of generation. The analogy may at first appear far fetched, 

 as there is no actual separation of parts, the new structure 

 seeming as much an appendage of the original leafy axis, 

 as the fruit is of any phaenogamous plant, yet closer inves- 

 tigation will certainly show a real community of nature 

 between the two processes. As this point, however, will 

 again come under consideration, no farther reference need 

 be made to it at present than to remark that in this case 

 two of the stages of development, which were distinguished 

 in the last chapter, are very distinctly marked : — 



1. That termed protomorphic, immediately following the 

 fertilization of the genu, by which are fonned the " fi'uit" 

 and the derivative spores. 



2. That termed orthomorphic, which consists in the de- 

 velopment from the latter of the typical plant, bearing in 

 turn new reproductive organs. 



The point mainly to be observed is this, that the fecun- 

 dated germ is not at once developed into the typical plant, 

 but into an intermediate form known as " the fruit," in 

 which numerous spores are formed. These spores, in ger- 

 mination, give rise to the typical form, either directly or 

 through the intervention of a filamentous protonema, and 

 the typical frond or axis bears the reproductive organs, witli 

 the sexes, sometimes united, sometimes separated. In 

 general the orthomorphic form is much more conspicuous 

 than the protomorphic. Buxbaumia is perhaps an excep- 

 tion, as the axis which supports the archegonium and after- 

 wards the capsule is here represented only by a tuft of 

 minute scales. The protonema is perhaps best regarded as 

 a second link in the series of forms marking the proto- 

 morphic stage. 



D 2 



