SPECIAL MORPHOLOGY: PHANEROGAMIA. 211 



b. Plantce thalamiccs. 



1 1 9. Three especial points separate the Phanerogamia from the 

 Rhizocarpece, which approximate so closely to them in the most essen- 

 tial conditions. First, the course of development of the young plant ; 

 since the seed-bud (ovule) is penetrated by the pollen-tube while 

 still organically connected with the parent plant, and this end of the 

 pollen- tube, endowed with a capability of development, takes the 

 form of a rudimentary plant ; the embryo, which, suddenly arrested 

 in its growth, separates with the seed-bud (now called the seed) 

 from the parent, and then, after some time, throws off' its envelopes 

 and unfolds itself (germinates) into a perfect plant. Secondly, the 

 fact that the physiological difference of the two organs, seed-bud 

 and anther, is here also connected with the morphological opposition 

 of stem and leaf. Thirdly, the organs of reproduction are here 

 again enclosed (as in the Mosses and Liverworts, only under more 

 definite conditions) by a number of peculiarly modified leaves 

 forming the flower (flos). 



Reviewing, under the guidance of what has been stated in the fore- 

 going pages, the whole series of stages by which Nature works her way 

 up to the Phanerogamia, if we banish all baseless dreams and nights of 

 fancy, as unscientific, and hold simply to the product of unprejudiced ob- 

 servation, the following conclusions become evident : 



1. The cell is the simple element ; it is the whole plant, without organs, 

 and uniting in itself all physiological forces, a. Gradually, in portions 

 of it, or in the next stage where several cells are combined, though as 

 yet in exceedingly indeterminate forms, in entire individual cells, we note 

 the appearance of organs (sporangia) which are especially devoted to the 

 formation of reproductive cells, the spores, b. The form of the cells 

 combining to constitute a plant remains still undefined, but several of 

 these sporangia combine in a definite form as a sporocarp ; and, lastly, 

 c, in the Lichens the spore becomes perfected as an independant organ, by 

 the addition of a special coat. (The Chares remain still inexplicable). 



2. Nature advances, causing the cells to combine into determinate, 

 fixed, elementary forms, in fact, into stem and leaf, at the same time re- 

 taining the sporocarp, which developes in its highest complexity, and 

 essaying the formation of a new organ essentially consisting of a large cell 

 enclosed in an ovate, cellular body, to which at this stage no definite 

 function is delegated. Neither this nor the sporocarp stands in definite 

 relation to stem and leaf (but there are still important deficiencies in our 

 observations). Lastly, the sporocarp and that other organ become sur- 

 rounded by leaves, which are modified in definite gradations, forming a 

 flower (Mosses and Liverworts). 



3. Through the Lycopodiacece, Ferns, and Equisetacece, the sporocarp 

 becomes continually more definitely connected with the leaf, and the de- 

 velopment of the sporophyll (spore-leaf) into a peculiar modification (the 

 anther of the Phanerogamia) progressively more clearly marked. In its 

 highest condition in the KquisetacecE, the physiological oouosition of leaf 



p 2 



