10 INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



some of the lower Cryptogams the impregnating bodies preserve 

 an animal type, and it is to be observed that direct proof of 

 the function of these bodies has been ehcited amongst Algaj, in 

 the first instance by Thuret,* and afterwards by Pringsheim-f* 

 and his followers. Where the flagelliform appendages charac- 

 teristic of sj^ermatozoids disajDpear, as in Lichens and Fungi, 

 there is still molecular motion ; and if Leptoinitus (or as it is 

 sometimes called Saprulegnia, Aclilya, &c.), as I believe 

 to be the case, is a true Fungal, even amongst these we shall 

 have tlie animalcular form. 



7. A fourth distinction of equal importance with the last is 

 the absence, in general, of everything, so far as the spores 

 are concerned, in the shape of an embryo.J In every case 

 the spores consist of one or more cells composed of two or 

 more membranes inclosing a grumous mass, or occasionally 



Fig 6. 



a Spores of Coleospormm pingne, Lev. magnified, shewing several 

 germinating points arranged symmetrically. 



h Ditto of Podisoma fv^cum, magnified as observed by myself and 

 Mr. Browne.§ 



* Thuret, Recherches sur la fecondation des Fucacoes, suivies d' ob- 

 servations sur les Autheridies des Algues. Ann. d. Sc. Nat., Ser. iv., 

 vol. 2, p. 273. 



t Pringsheim in Monatsbericht der Kon. Prenss. Ak. zu Berlin, 

 March, 1855, p. 133. 



X If, however, by an embryo is meant a young plant ready formed, 

 and only waiting for the evolution of its parts, we cannot deny that the 

 spores of many of the lower AXgss, and of such fungi as Antennaria 

 Robinsonii, Mont., contain an embryo. In the latter case, however, the 

 mode of reproduction is not apparently normal. 



§ Gard. Chron., 1849, p. 261. Ann of Nat. Hist., Ser. 2, vol iii, p. 531. 

 The woodcut of both these fungi was prepared before the apjiearance of 

 Tulasne's second memoir on the Uredinees. 



