bus? f 
A. Henfrey on the Higher Cryptogamous Planis:, 379 
“ea fat ot 
4 
P 
ry 
covery of the two kinds of organs, the antheridia and pistillidia, vf 
in the Mosses and Hepatice, and of the peculiar organs contain * » 
ing analogous spiral filaments in the Characez, were for a long... 
time the chief facts brought forward by those who supported the 
sexual hypothesis; and in the endeavor to carry out the view 
into the other tribes, a similar nature to that of the antheridia 
was attributed to most varied structures in the ferns and other 
nts. These attempts to find distinct sexual organs were in 
and spores; while Prof. Schleiden stated that he observed a fer- 
hilization of these supposed ovules by the smaller spores resemE 
Pollen-grains, and thus seemed to remove the ground for attribu- 
ting a fertilizing influence to the spiral filaments contained in the 
So-called antheridia of the Cryptogams. 
n this state the question remained until 1848, when Count 
Suminski+ published his observations on the germination of ferns, 
showing that the researches of Nageli had been imperfect, and 
that two kinds of organs are produced upon the pro-embryo of 
the ferns: one kind analogous to the antheridia, and the other to 
the pistillidia of mosses; from the latter of which the true fern 
Stem is produced, like the seta and capsule from the same organ 
in the mosses; further stating that he had actually observed a 
process of fertilization. Soon after this, M. G. Thuret} discov- 
ered antheridia like those of the ferns in the Exquisetacee® ; a- 
Seli§ had previously published, in opposition to Schleiden’s ob- 
Servations, an account of the production of spiral filaments from 
small spores of Pélularia, and finally M. Mettenius|| discov- 
ered them in the small spores of Isoétes. Thus they were shown 
* Linnean Transactions, vol. xvii. ‘ 
Entwickelungsgeschichte der Farrenkriuter. Berlin, 1848. 
Aun, des Sci. Nat., ser. 3, vol. xi, 1849. 
eitschrift fiir Wiss. Botanik, Heft 3. Zurich, 1646. 
Beitriige zur Botanik, Heft 1. Heidelberg, 1850. 
at 
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