4 HEDW1G ON THE ORGANS OF 



The appearance, contents, structure and situ- 

 ation of these bodies seeming completely to warrant 

 the opinion their discoverer entertained, I was in- 

 duced to adopt it myself, as soon as I observed 

 them. Before I had heard of the prize question pro- 

 posed by the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, 

 respecting the sexual parts of cryptogamous plants 

 in general, my attention had already been directed 

 to this particular point upon the musci frondosi 

 & hepaticae ; as to the remaining families of cryp- 

 togamia, I had only examined them cursorily in 

 this regard: but having resolved to attend to them 

 generally, I investigated more minutely the ferns 

 and their male organs of fructification, as described 

 by Mr. Von Gleichen. 



A portion of the cuticle immersed in water 

 presented to me exactly what he had seen and 

 described j but I also observed the same in 

 such parts of the plant, as were only found at an 

 early period, and when the first rudiments of the 

 fruit beneath the covering membrane were yet 

 very minute. This made me suspect that the 

 parts which Mr. Von Gleichen took for the male 



