BOTANICAL SUBJECl;?. 297 



To take all this in one requires to take a much broader view 

 of evolution than is usually found in books treating of plants, and 

 to consider that seaweeds which have important reproductive 

 organs of no more complex structure than the hairs of higher 

 plants have been the organisms from which all land plants have 

 evolved. In this evolution many of the formerly essentially 

 important organs have not always been thrown off and become 

 extinct. In many cases they have persisted, their function 

 becoming altered to suit the conditions and surroundings of the 

 innumerable developments we see everywhere. As tliese 

 organisms progressed in development more complex reproductive 

 and vegetative organs were j^ari passu develoj^ed, and, therefore, 

 the old reproductive organs were either totally suppressed or 

 atrophied as mere incumbrances, or altered into iiseful subsidiary 

 organs. 



I shall conclude this long and not very clear discussion Ijy a 

 teratological phenomenon I recently observed in Osmunda Regalis, 

 var. capitata, exliibited by Mr. E. J. Lowe at the meeting of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society of 8th September 1891. 



At my request Mr. Lowe kindly gave me the apical portion of 

 a frond which had become fertile. On careful examination I 

 found that it gave off sporangiferous hairs with a thick stalk singly 

 from the veins of the pinnte, as we see hairs given off from the 

 nerves of leaves. The teeth of the pinnules here and there were 

 also sporangiferous, which, to my mind, proves that teeth of 

 leaves, hairs, and sporangia are one thing, and that probably what 

 we call glandular hairs are no other than abortive sporangiferous 

 hairs. From this it would appear that sori in other ferns, whether 

 sheltered by an indusium or not, are mere tufts of sporangiferous 

 or fertile hairs, and that one-celled stamens and ovules correspond 

 to sporangiferous hairs. 



In the Prothallium of ferns the archegonia and antheridia 

 appear to correspond to teeth of leaves in pha^nogams. ( Vide 

 pp. 201 and 207 of Goebel's " Outlines of Classification," &c.) 



"NVhon we accept Evolution we must be prepared for a 

 Revolution in thought, not only in all that concerns the so-called 

 lifeless kingdom, but also, and more especially, in all that regards 

 the kingdoms we are pleased to call living — the botanical and 

 zoological kingdoms. 



