CONCLUSION 303 



In Selaginella we have an extreme case of heterospory, 

 with an enormous difference between microspores and 

 megaspores. There is, however, another change going on 

 concurrently with that just sketched. Both prothalli 

 have become the mere bearers of sexual organs, and are 

 losing the character of distinct organisms. Hence the 

 female prothallus, though so highly developed relatively 

 to the male, is itself reduced, as compared with the 

 prothallus of a homosporous Cryptogam. 



The homologies between Selaginella and a gymno- 

 spermous Flowering Plant, such as Picea, are quite clear, 

 and have been fully demonstrated above (p. 31). It is 

 doubtful, however, whether there is any near affinity 

 between Selaginella and the Gymnosperms, which, as 

 Palseontological evidence indicates, probably sprang from 

 the same stock as the Ferns. In any case the homologies 

 hold good, whatever the particular heterosporous family 

 or families may have been from which the Gymnosperms 

 sprang. 



In the latter Class the female oophyte has lost its 

 independence altogether, and never leaves the megaspore, 

 which itself remains shut up in the sporangium. Ferti- 

 lisation leads to the formation of a seed the character- 

 istic structure of Flowering Plants, consisting of sporan- 

 gium, prothallus, and embryo, united to form one body, 

 and fed entirely at the expense of the parent sporophyte. 



Until recently there appeared to be a sharp distinc- 

 tion between Cryptogams and Phanerogams, in the 

 method of fertilisation, for active spermatozoids were 

 supposed to be peculiar to the former, the generative 

 cell in Phanerogams being carried passively to the ovum 

 by the growth of the pollen - tube. The researches of 

 the Japanese botanists Hirase and Ikeno first broke 



