38 A. Henfrey on the Higher Cryptogamous Planis. | 
as in that case the spores would be ovules produced long after 
fertilization ; and on the other hand, if we consider the pistillidia 
of the Moss as an ovule, which it might be, analogous to that. 
the Coniferee,—in which a large number of embryonal vesicles 
or rudiments of embryos are produced after fertilization on the 
ranched extremities of the suspensors,—then we seem to lose 
the analogy between the produet of the vistiitidiam of the Moss 
and that of the ovule of the Fern, unless we would regard the 
entire plant of a perfect Fern as analogous to the ovule of a Conifer. 
~ Perhaps the time has hardly come for-us to arrive at any con 
clusion on these points. ‘The phenomena in the Ferns and Equi 
setace#, as well as in the Rhizocarpee, Lycopodiaceee, and [so€- 
taceze less strikingly. seem to preseut a series of conditions anal 
us to those which have been described under the n 
“alternation of generations” in'the animal kingdom, ft seeing 
the resemblance which the pistillidia of the Mosses have to the 
ovules of the other families, we can hardly help extending the 
saime views to them; in which case we should have the remark- 
le phenomenon of a compound érganism, in which a new in 
dividual forming a second generation, developed after a tome 
of fertilization, remains attached organically to the parent, from 
whieh it differs totally in all eae tt and physiological char- 
acters. {t is almost needless to a o the essential pital 
between stich a case and that of i occurrence of flower-buds 
and leaf-buds on one stem in the Phanerogamia, as parts of a sin- 
gle plant, yet possessing a certain amount of independent indi+ 
viduality. “These are produced from each other by simple exten 
sion, a kind of gemmation; while the Moss capsule, if the _ xual 
theory be correct, is the result of a true reproductive process.* 
In conelusion, T may tab aut these anomalous conditions 
lose their remarkable characte a great extent if we refuse. to 
accept the evidence of enriairi which has been brought forward 
here. If the structures are all products of mere extension or 
gemmation, the analogies which have been stipposed to exist be- 
tween them and the organs of flowering plants all fall to the 
par Bur believing that the hypothesis of sexuality is based 
solid grounds, I am by no means inclined to allow the diffi- 
ont of the explanation of these relations to be urged as a 
argument against their existence, and I trust that this imperfect 
report may be the means of attracting new investigators to a sub- 
Sa ee es, hes Sai 
BS Se ate eer 
oe sera o a Ts “polh buds in the epee i legac 
afterwards fin gemm on the stems and leaves, as in the Liverworts also. The bys 
id mass pecteds eee Moss-spore has usually been called the rye eed 
it is aralenlls ies gosta ibs 
podiac = ote &e. It would ka seem to Cemtligte 
of genera 
