I886-I887.] 535 



On 13th January the Third Meeting was held in the Museum 

 — the president, Rev. Canon Grainger, D.D., M.R.I.A., in the 

 chair — when a paper was given by Mr. W. H. PhiUips, of 

 Holywood, *' On the Reproduction of Ferns, specially on the 

 observed phenomenon called Apospory, with some remarks on 

 Hybridisation." 



The reader commenced with a description of an excursion to 

 the West of England, to inspect the extensive collections of 

 ferns in cultivation in that district. The collections in Bristol 

 Zoological Gardens, Shirenewtown Hall, near Chepstow, and at 

 Usk, in Monmouthshire, were described. The reproductive 

 organs of flowering plants and ferns were contrasted. In 

 flowers, the various parts are conspicuous and easily seen 

 whereas in ferns these parts are so minute it is not to be 

 wondered that the study of the modus operandi of their 

 development progressed at a very slow rate, it being only forty 

 years ago that the last step was attained in the investigation of 

 the normal mode of their reproduction, by the discovery that 

 ferns, like flowers, were the result of sexual action. Haegele, in 

 1844, discovered the antheridia, or sperm cells, and Simmonski, 

 a Polish botanist, the archegonia, or germ cells, two years later. 

 The greatest obstacle to the earlier discovery of these phenomena 

 was, that the first result of the germination of a fern spore is 

 the production, not of a fern nor anything resembling one, but 

 of a flat, green disc, called prothallus, upon the under side of 

 which the antheridia and archegonia are produced, and the 

 fertilising takes place, which results in the reproduction of the 

 parent plant. When the antheridia are ripe their cells burst, 

 and from them issue numerous spermatozoids, which make their 

 way to the archegonia, and fertilise the ovary seated at its base. 

 From this it will be seen that the prothallus represents the 

 flowers of the higher orders of plants, in so far that it bears the 

 homologues of the stamens and stigma in the forms of the 

 archegonia and antheridia, and also the ovary and ovum. The 

 spermatozoids take the place of the pollen grains, but seem 

 endowed with a certain amount of volition, in addition to a 

 power of locomotion, as they have been observed to travel 



