CHAP, iv.] REPRODUCTION OF PLANTS. 125 



reaches the oosphere does not necessitate the presence 

 of those showy and conspicuous portions that popularly 

 constitute the flower. The latter was considered by the 

 older botanists to be entirely absent, hence the origin of 

 the term " flowerless plants/' a mistake which, on account 

 of its being a mistake, still persists. 



The progress made by the higher cryptogams in 

 getting away from their primordial aquatic habitat and 

 taking possession of the dry land has been noticed, also 

 the drawback to further extension in this direction 

 owing to the retention of the ancient mode of fertiliza- 

 tion, which depended on the presence of a certain amount 

 of moisture to enable the antherozoid to reach the 

 oosphere. This drawback was first overcome by the 

 group of plants known as Gymnosperms, the earliest of 

 phanerogams, where the fertilizing body, instead of 

 being a naked motile cell antherozoid consists of a 

 cell furnished with a cell-wall, and not possessed of 

 spontaneous movement, consequently the means of 

 reaching the oosphere for the purpose of effecting fer- 

 tilization depended on one of the two following methods. 

 (1) The stamens producing the pollen, and the pistil 

 containing the oospheres, or ovules, as they are generally 

 termed in phanerogamic plants, are placed in such close 

 proximity that the pollen falls directly on to the ovules 

 or stigma; or, (2) when the stamens and pistils are 

 produced at a distance from each other, the transporta- 

 tion of the pollen to the pistil depended entirely on 

 external agents, generally wind or insects. The first 

 method implied self-fertilization, the second, generally 

 cross-fertilization, and to the second method, which in 

 its most perfect and economical way is effected by the 



