382 A. Henfrey on the Higher Cryptogamous Plants. 
M. Hofmeister,* again, describes the details much in the same 
way as Mr. Valentine. He states that there exists at the point 
where the ‘style’ and ‘germen’ of the pistillidiam join, a cell, 
developed before the canal of the style has become opened. In 
those pistillidia which produce capsules this cell begins at a cer- 
tain period to exhibit very active increase; it becomes rapidly 
divided and subdivided by alternately directed oblique partitions 
into a somewhat spindle-shaped body formed of a row of large 
cells. Meanwhile the ceils at the base of the germen are also 
rapidly multiplied, and the lower part of the pistillidium is greatly 
increased in size. The spindle-shaped body continues to increase 
in length by the subdivision of its uppermost cell by oblique 
transverse walls, and the opposition which is offered by the upper 
concave surface of the cavity of the germen, causes the lower 
conical extremity of the spindle-shaped body to penetrate into the 
of cellular tissue at the base of the germen, a process which 
resembles the penetration of the embryo into the endosperm in 
the embryo-sac of certain flowering plants. The base of the 
spindle-shaped body, which is in fact the rudiment of the fruit, 
amperes reaches the base of the pistillidium, and penetrates even 
me distance into the tissue of the stem upon which this is 
seated. The growth of the upper part going on unceasingly, the 
walls of the germen are torn by a circular fissure and the upper 
half is carried upwards, bearing the calyptra, the lower part forms 
the vaginule. ‘he upper cell of the spindle-shaped body then 
_ becomes developed into the capsule, and the calyptra often be- 
coming organically connected with this, as the base of the seta 
does with the end of the stem, it in such cases undergoes further 
development during the time it is being carried upwards by the 
growing fruit. 
The view now entertained by Schimper, Hiofeosieat and oth- 
ers, of the reproduction of the mosses is, that the antheridia are 
truly male organs, and that they exert, by means of the spi 
filaments, a fertilizing influence upon the pistillidia, it being as- 
sumed that those bodies, or the fluid which they are bathed in, 
penetrate down the canal of the style or neck-like portion of the 
pistillidiam to reach the minute cell, the supposed embryonal cell, 
situated in the globular portion or ‘germen’ of the pistillidium, 
and thus render it capable of becoming developed into a perfect 
ruit. : 
No such process of fertilization has actually been observed in 
the mosses, and therefore all the evidence is at present merely 
circumstantial ; but this is very strong. In the first place it 1s 
Stated as an undoubted fact by Schimper and Bruch, that in the 
dicecious mosses, those on which the antheridia and pistillidia 
aoe Bes ous ea 
* Botanische Zeitung, 1849, 798. Botanical Gazette, vol. ii, p. 70. 
