364 PHILOSOPHICAL NOTEs OX 



multifida and Porphyra laciniata, with the female 



element surpressed, and segregated in the carpel ; 

 (b.) It may be regarded as a form of globular reproductive 



hairs similar to the ordinary antl barren leaf hairs of 



Chowpodium petiolare ; 

 {c.) It may be regarded as a moditicatiou of sporangia, of 



which there are so many variations, both in sea^veeds 



and ferns,* and that the anther itself is a modified 



sorus. 

 What is siguiiicaut is this, one of the lowest Alga?, Sarcina^ 

 the vegetative cells of the frond of Cutleria, the various modifica- 

 tions of tetraspores in seaweeds, and the mother-cells of the anthers 

 of phaenogams, all have a quaternary division, as if they were all 

 one and the same thing, derivable from the lowest organisms, 

 passing into the fronds of seaweeds, and by specialization bloom- 

 ing as the pollen of the highest plants. The male and female 

 elements, Avhich in Cutleria occupy the same vegetative cell, 

 appear by degrees to hn\e separated into distinct organs, so as 

 eventually to have become monoecious and dioecious organs. It is 

 readily conceivable that by contraction and suppression of its 

 female element, the frond of Cutleria or JPorphi/ra would be 

 equal to evolving the anther of phajnogams.! 



Eleventh. — That the carpel is the homologue of the anther. 

 Its ovules or female cells are the same female elements of 

 Porphyra and other seaweeds, separated into a specialized frond. 

 They are borne either on the margin, on the midrib, or on the 

 whole surface of the carpel. The carj^el, as we have seen, is 

 notliing but a modified cladophyl, like that of any seaweed, such as 

 Giyartina, Lenormandiay or any other. When the ovules are 

 marginal they correspond to the lobes or pinnie of Fncus margini- 

 fer and Lenormandia^ when they arc on the midrib they corre- 

 spond to the leaflets of Delesseria, and when they are on the 

 general surface they correspond to the scattered reproductive cells 



* The sporaugimu contains male and female elements, for the spore 

 develops, in the prothallium, male and female organs. If in the sporangium 

 the female element is suppressed, what is left will correspond to pollen, 



f There is, I think, another view of the genesis of the anther, which will 

 require time to work out. 



