86 INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



of philosophic doubt. A careful examination of Ktitzing's 

 papers, in Linneea, vol. 8, 1 833, and much more of his prize 

 essay, will show a multitude of such loopholes ; and, but for 

 his acquaintance with species, they never would have com- 

 manded so much attention as they have ; and if Kutzing's 

 observations are suspicious, still more assuredly those of 

 Reissek, who professes to have witnessed the transformation of 

 chlorophyll into Algse, and pollen grains giving rise to moulds 

 laden Avith spores, which spores, when placed in water, produced 

 Confervoid plants filled with chlorophyll, and copulating with 

 one another. Nay, more than this, he reports the metamorphosis 

 of pollen cells into animals, belonging toEhrenberg's germs Asta- 

 sia, and that the contents of the pollen cells also produced ])lants 

 and animals. From the smaller j^articles, originated Bacterice, 

 Vibrios, and Confervw, from the larger green globular monads.* 

 While we doubt not the fact of his obtaining the germination 

 of pollen grains apart from the stigmatic moisture, as in the 

 parenchym of plants, sometimes belonging even to a different 

 natural order, a fact which has no unimportant bearing on 

 some physiological questions, respecting the impregnation of 

 the ovules of Phcenogams, under certain anomalous conditions, 

 it cannot be allowed for a moment, with every deference to the 

 fidelity of the author, that his investigations were conducted in 

 such a way as to challenge belief I shall, on this subject, beg 

 leave to reproduce the passage from the Annals of Nat. Hist., v. 

 xiv. p. 434, which has been quoted by Dr. Lindley, in the 

 Vegetable Kingdom, because I cannot express my sentiments 

 better than I did there.f "As far as I understand what I have 

 read upon the subject, I cannot help remarking first, that the 

 observations cannot be considered conclusive, apart from all 



* This is from a mere verbal report by Eeissek, in Bot. Zeit. July 19, 

 1844 ; but a full account with figures has since been published. 



t The passage is in a review of Kutzing's Treatise, Ueber die Ver- 

 wandlung der Infusorien in niedere Algen-Formen. Nordhauseu, 1844, 

 with an especial view, at the same time, to his larger Prize Treatise, Die 

 Umwandlung niederer Algeu-Formen in hohere so wie auch in Gat- 

 tungen ganz verschiedener Familien und Klassen hoherer Cryptogamen 

 mit Zelligem Ban. Haarlem, 1841. 



