A. Henfrey on the Higher Cryptogamous Plants. 39 
ject which presents so many points of interest and importance.— 
July 3rd, 1851. 
Postscript.—Since the above Report has been in print, Dr. 
W. Hofmeister has published his promised work upon the higher 
Cryptogams,* which contains an elaborate series of researches. 
upon this subject. He there confirms all his previous statements, 
and all the essential particulars given by Suminski, Nageli, Met- 
tenius, &c., excepting the facts of the impregnation by means of 
t iral filaments or spermatozoids, which however he considers 
it warrantable to assume. His speculations as to the relation of 
the Conifers to the Lycopodiacez, as shown by the deveiopment 
of the embryo, are very interesting. We can only claim space 
to indicate the general results of his work as given in the con- 
cluding summary :—“'The comparison of the course of develop- 
ment of the Mosses and Liverworts on the one hand, with the 
Ferns, Eguisetacee, Rhizocarpee and Lycopediacee on the other, 
reveals the most complete agreement between the development 
of the fruit of the former and the development of the embryo of 
the others. The archegonium of the Mosses, the organ within 
which the rudiment of its fruit is formed, resembles perfectly in 
Structure the archegonium of the Filicoids, (in the widest sense,) 
of the frondescent plant originates. In the two great groups of . 
the higher Cryptogams, one large central cell originating free in 
the archegonium, gives origin by repeated subdivision to the fruit 
in the Mosses, and to the leafy plant in the Filicoids. In neither 
of them does the subdivision of this cell go on, in both does the 
archegonium become abort ive, if spermatic filaments do not reach 
itatthe epoch when it bursts open at the apex. 3 
_“ Mosses and Filicoids thns afford one of the most striking ex- 
amples of a regular alternation of two generations widely differ- 
eut in their organization. ‘The first of these, produced by the 
germinating spore, develops antheridia and archegonia, sometimes 
-eW, sometimes many. In the central cell of the archegonium, 
IM Consequence of a fertilization through the spermatozoids emit- 
ted from the antheridia, becomes developed ihe second generation, 
destined to produce spores, which are always formed in a number 
Much greater than that of the rudimentary fruits of the first gen- 
erat 
ton. 
“In the Mosses the vegetative life is exclusively committed to 
the first, the production of fruit to the second generation. Only 
leafy stem possesses roots ; the spore-producing generation 
ry Vv ‘gleichende Untersuchungen der Keimung, Enifaltupg: und Fruchtbildung 
oher F Rrvptogamen (Moose, Farrn, Equisetaceen, Rhizoearpeen und Lycopodia- 
ead Samenbildung der Coniferen. 1851, Leipsic, Hofmeister, 4to, pp. 180, 
