Se ee 
A, Henfrey on the Higher Cryptogamous Plants. 25 
Arr. IV.—On the Reproduction and supposed Existence of 
Serual Organs in the Higher Cryptogamous Plants; by 
Artuur Henrrey, F.L.S. 
[Concluded from vol. xiv, p. 889.] 
Lyeopodiacee.—T he fructification of this family consists, as is 
well known, of spikes clothed with fruit-leaves, bearing on their 
inner faces sporangia containing spores. These spores are of two 
kinds. One sort occur in large numbers in their sporangium, and 
are very small; the others are much larger, and only four are met 
with in a sporangium. Spring,* who has devoted great attention 
to the general characters of the Lycopodiacex, has given especial 
hames to the two kinds of sporangia; those with the four large 
spores he calls oophoridia, those with the small spores antheridia ; 
yet he did not mean to attribute a sexual antithesis, merely a 
morphological one, as he expressly states. 
The general impression, however, with regard to the import of 
the two kinds of spores has long been, that the large spores alone 
are capable of producing new plants; and five years ago Dr. 
Miller published an elaborate account of the development of the 
Lycopodiacex,+ in which the germination of the large spores was 
described at length. ‘The following are the essential results of 
his investigations. : 
The large spores are more or less globular bodies, usually flat- 
tened on the surfaces by which they are iu contact in the oopho- 
ridium ; thus, while the outer side has a spherical surface, the 
inner side has three cr four triangular surfaces, as in L. selagi- 
noides, and L. denticulatum. They possess two coats, the outer 
very thick and composed of numerous cells, the cavities of which 
are almost completely filled up by deposits of secondary layers. 
This outer coat exhibits various forms of raised markings on its 
outer surface, and in some cases these seem to form a distinct 
layer, a kind of cuticle, capable of being separated from the sub- 
t cells. The inner coat of the spore is usually perfectly 
structureless, and not very firmly attached to the outer coat. In 
L. gracillium, Dr. Miiller observed below the outer coat a struc- 
ture composed of a layer of rather large parenchymatous cells, 
Which could be easily isolated; and as there was no structureless 
membrane within this, he regarded the layer as the proper inner 
Coat. This observation is important in relation to the discrepan- 
Cies between Dr. Miiller’s statements and those of Mettenius, to 
be spoken of presenily. ‘The cavity of the spore is filled with 
granular mucilage. ~~ 
Sens, ema LT ow 
Q 
* Flor. Brasiliensis, 106-108. : 
+ Botanische Zeitung, July 81, 1846, ef seg. num. Ann. of Nat. Hist., vol. xix, 1847. 
Skconp Serius, Vol, XV, No. 43.—Jan., 1853. 4 
