118 



STRUCTURAL BOTANY 



repeatedly by transverse walls, so that the ripe 

 archegonium consists of a chimney-like neck, enclosing 

 a row of canal-cells leading down to the ovum at the 

 bottom (see Fig. 54). The cap-cell at the top of the 

 neck divides into four by vertical walls crossing each 

 other at right angles. We see that the archegonium of 



a Liverwort differs 

 from the corre- 

 sponding organ 

 of a Fern or other 

 Vascular Crypto- 

 gam, not only in 

 the much greater 

 length of the neck, 

 but also in the 

 V. C. C. origin of the neck- 

 canal. In the 

 Liverworts this is 

 derived from the 

 upper part of the 



o archegonium,while 



in the Vascular 

 Cryptogams it is 

 formed from an 

 outgrowth of the 

 central cell. The 

 final result, however, is much the same in both cases, 

 and on the whole there is more reason to lay stress on 

 the essential similarity of the sexual organs in plants so 

 remote from each other, than to dwell on their somewhat 

 minute differences. 



When ready for fertilisation, the archegonium opens. 

 This is due to the pressure of the mucilaginous substance 



o 



FIG. 54. Archegonia of a Liverwort (March- 

 antia). The youngest stages are shown on 

 the left. In the more mature archegonia, 

 the venter, neck, and canal are clearly 

 shown. 0, ovum ; V. C. (7, ventral canal- 

 cells. Magnified about 200. 



