BOTANICAL SUBJECTS. 289 



Fig. 120, Sporangium of Scolopendrium vulyare (Fig-. 96, Strasb. and 



Hillh.). 



Viola tricolor. The stem of the sporniigiiun consists of a thread 

 of simple cells. There is no trace of vascular tissue in it. !N^ever- 

 theless, at its summit there is a highly-specialized body cai)able of 

 producing cells, which reproduce the whole parent form I The 

 head of the sporangium does much more than the tentacle of the 

 Drosera does, or ordinarily can do. Tlie latter moves and secretes 

 only ; the former creates a new being. And all this without the 

 aid of fibro-va.scular tissue, although tlie plant is called vascular 

 cryptogam, and l)y simple imbibition of nourishment from cell to 

 cell. Anatomically, the sporangium may be called a trichome, but 

 physiologically it is undoubtedly a branch. 



All this shows us that the distinction we make between iilandular 

 hair and tentacle appe^irs incorrectly based on the fact that the 

 latter has a core of libro-vascular tissue; for the .^j^X)raugium has 

 no trace of it, and yet it is a much more highly organized bod^^ 

 And, therefore, the difference between the tentacles of Drosera and 

 ejndermal trichomes appears to me to be only a distinction of 

 words. 



Paul Biousso ('' Quehpies mots sur I'ctiuh^ dcs Iruits," 1880) 

 gives an interesting series of reversions of the glamlular hairs of 

 Drosera intermedia, reproduced in Figs. 121 to 123. 



A p. 1724, -^ 



