186 REPRESENTATION OF THE 



seed-like bodies contained in the sporocarp, which may 

 therefore be compared to a sort of gynandrous flower,* and 

 as the Rhizocarp fructification has this analogy to the bi- 

 sexual flowers of the phanerogamia, so have some of the 

 Lycopodiacese to the monoecious inflorescence, as the an- 

 theridial bodies — represented by the " small spores" — are 

 generated in capsules quite distinct from the oophoridia, 

 or those yielding the large spores, which form prothallia. 



Hence the resemblance between the reproduction of such 

 cryptogamic plants as Selaginella or Pilidaria, and the pha- 

 nerogamic Conifer83, is very close in essential points, however 

 diverse in many accidental features. In both the germinal 

 body (the ovule or the large spore) is formed in connection 

 with a bract or rudimentary leaf, but is quite naked, during 

 the later stages at least of its maturation — in both there is 

 formed in its interior, before impregnation, a peculiar cel- 

 lular body, distinct from the rest of its parenchyma, (the 

 albuminous body or tlie pro thallium), lying just under- 

 neath the micropyle or opening in the outer coat, through 

 which the spermatic particles gain access for fecundation — 

 in both this new growth forms within it a certain number 

 of cellular capsules, (the corpuscula or the archegonia), 

 each mth a germinal cell in its interior, capable of becom- 

 ing an embryo on fecundation — but in both also, only one 

 is nonnally so transformed, the rest aborting. In both, 

 moreover, the spermatic cells (pollen gTains or microspores) 

 are formed in distinct organs of fructification — and in both 

 their development is interrupted by a latent interval, repre- 

 sented in the former by the arrest of the growth of the 

 2}ollen-tube during the winter, in the course of the two 

 years over which the maturation of the fir-seed is extended 



* Hence these two orders are termed Heterosporous by Munter, and 

 the Ferns and Equisetaceee Hornoiosporous, as producing but one land of 

 spore, in whose cellular outgrowth are formed both archegonia and anthe- 

 ridia. Comptes Rendus, Dec, 1857. 



