380 A. Henfrey on the Higher Cryptogamous Plants. 
to exist in all the families above enumerated, with the exception 
of the Lycopodiacee, in which they have recently been stated to 
exist by M. Hofmeister.* Before entering into a detailed account 
of their discoveries, it may be mentioned, that, besides their well- 
known occurrence in the Characeze, which most authors consider 
as Thallophytes, antheridia are stated by Nageli to exist in the 
Floridee, among the Alge; and peculiar bodies to which the 
same nature has been attributed, were recently discovered by M. 
Itzigsohn in the lichens; a discovery confirmed by Messrs. Tu- 
lasne, who state that analogous bodies exist in many fungi. Our 
knowledge of these latter points is, however, far less definite than 
that concerning the higher tribes, and I shall not include them in 
the following summary. 
ne of the most remarkable circumstances concerning the an- 
theridia of the leaf-bearing Cryptogams, is the very varied nature 
of the time and place of their development; so great indeed is 
this, that it is only their essential structure, and the production of 
the moving spiral filaments in particular, which warrants the as- 
sumption of their identity of function in the different families. 
ey In order to make these variations clearly comprehensible, it will 
“necessary to describe the characters exhibited in the germina- 
tion of the spores in each tribe, as it is only by this means that 
the important peculiarities of each case can be made evident. It 
will be most convenient to give a separate sketch of all that is 
known of the process of reproduction in each family, taking these 
2 separately and in succession; after this we shall be in a position 
© compare them together, and trace out their differences and 
analogies; the advantage of recalling all the essential facts to 
memory, will, I trust, serve as an apology for the introduction of 
much that is already familiar to most botanists. ; 
Mosses.—The antheridia of the mosses occur in the axils of 
the leaves or collected into a head, enclosed by numerous vatl- 
ously modified leaves, at the summit of the stem. ‘They are pro- 
duced either on the same heads as the pistillidia, or in distinct 
heads on the same individuals, such mosses being called mone- 
cious ; or the heads are found only on distinct individuals, such 
mosses being termed dicecious. The structure of the antheridium 
is exceedingly simple; it consists of an elongate, cylindrical or 
club-shaped sac, the walls of which are composed of a single 
layer of cells, united to form a delicate membrane. Within this 
sac are developed vast numbers of minute cellules, completely 
filling it, and, the sac bursting at its apex at a certain period, these 
vesicles are extruded. When the nearly perfect sacs are placed 
in water, the vesicles within appear to absorb water, and swell 0 
as to burst the sac of the antheridium, and often adhering to 
gether, they collectively appear to form masses larger than the 
* Flora, 1850, p. 700. 
