178 MORPHOLOGY. 



being in the present day mere fiction to ascribe any sexual signifi- 

 cation to the latter. Besides this, the floral leaves are by no means 

 distinctly different from the true leaves, into which they generally pass 

 by imperceptible gradations, and there is no appearance of the formation 

 of a calyx, which would, indeed, constitute the most essential morpholo- 

 gical distinction between the Mosses and Liverworts. Even for this 

 reason, it is impracticable to distinguish the separate blossoms and the 

 inflorescence in the Mosses. 



B. The primary form of the sporocarp, the archegonium (germen), 

 is that of a shorter or longer ellipsoidal, attenuated corpuscle, stalked 

 at the base. It consists merely of a simple layer of cells, the envelope 

 (calyptra), which extends upwards into a longer or shorter filament, 

 expanded somewhat funnel-like at the extremity, and enclosing a 

 nucleus free at all parts except the base. This conceals, under a 

 simple epithelium, a delicate walled, uniform, cellular tissue, ca- 

 pable of development. 



The archegonium of Mosses is so strikingly similar to that of the Liver- 

 worts, that whatever may be said of the one, applies also to the other. 

 We stand, unfortunately, in the midst of such uncertainty here, that all 

 our attempts at a morphological explanation of what follows, even where 

 they may not be purely visionary, are still wholly unstable ; so it is cer- 

 tainly not worth while to attempt going beyond the point to which the bare 

 fact may lead us. How has the archegonium originated ? Is the separa- 

 tion into nucleus and calyptra original, or been produced subsequently 

 from continuous cellular tissue ? Has the nucleus or calyptra been first 

 formed ? In what relation do both parts stand to leaf and stem, &c. ? 

 These are questions which must be answered, by means of a previously 

 and carefully pursued history of development, before we can entertain a 

 remote hope of arriving at a scientific comprehension of the capsule of 

 Mosses. It will, of course, appear most evident, that designations such 

 as style and stigma for the filiform extremity of the calyptra must be alike 

 unmeaning and false, since they designate organs of the Plianerogamia 

 defined according to morphological and physiological characteristics. 

 The inner cellular tissue of the nucleus consists in the earliest condi- 

 tions that have, as yet, been observed, of but a few cells (often of no 

 more than some twenty in the cross-section). From this tissue are de- 

 veloped the operculum, the peristoma, the wall of the capsule, the colu- 

 mella and the speedily disappearing sporangia, and, finally, the spores; 

 from which we may satisfactorily see the falseness of the expression 

 massa sporigena, as applied to this cell-tissue.* Concerning the filiform 

 end of the calyptra, the inappropriately termed stylus, there is still 

 much doubt, whether it is a canal, or a solid mass ; and, if the former, 

 whether it is hollow from the beginning, or only developed by subsequent 

 expansion into a canal. All this can only be decided with certainty 

 by the history of development. It is certainly in favour of the opi- 

 nion of the original difference of the capsule and the nucleus, that a de- 

 cided integument is subsequently developed upon the sporocarp formed 

 from the nucleus, since, as yet, at any rate, we are unacquainted with 

 any instance of a cellular layer, originally connected with other cells, 



* We might just as well term the yolk of the egg massa ptcryyogena, because birds, 

 amongst other things, have also feathers. 



