FRUCTIFICATION OF THE CRYFTOOAMI^E. 1 i 



the time the male powder is ripe. After observing the cap- 

 sules to be covered on one side with a white shining mix- 

 ture, they will soon see this turn to a pale green, from the 

 powder which fclls on it from the handle or elastic ring. 

 The manner in which the pollen is given out is as curious 

 as any part ; for the ring contracts, and dilates alternately, 

 till it has yielded all its dust, ^or is there the least fear of 

 taking the pollen for the seeds, the one, being brown, the 

 other almost white. In the month of September this me- 

 chanism is very plain in the asplenium scolopendrum ; I 

 have seen the male so difficult to confine from the eternal Great agita- 

 motion of the cord, that without a pair of pincers it was m ° ale p i dn t ( 

 impossible to fasten it within the field of the microscope. 

 Sometimes the fructification of this powder is in spikes, and 

 then the flowers ate contained within a case, as in theequi- 

 setum sylvaticum. There the male f.nd female have been per- 

 fectly guessed ; the capsule, which holds. the seeds, being the 

 pistil; while the agitated part attached to it is the stamen, 

 and which may really be said to fly from the glass. I have 

 seen them, when first thrown on the paper, move about like 

 a worm, and if a diop of water is placed near them, the fila- 

 ments gather round the capsule, as if to defend it ; beating 

 the anthers against it, till it is completely covered with pow- 

 der. It has 4 filaments to each female* 



Thus then we may lay down three rules for discovering Rules for dis- 

 the male plant: 1st, the leading up of the wood vessel to covering the 

 the part either with or without the line of life, as the male 

 is or is not joined to the pistil. 2d, the constant motion of the 

 filaments and anthers, when givingout their powder; which 

 agitation belongs only to the male, for the female is per- 

 fectly inert. 3d, the stamens being almost constantly iu 

 the shape of hairs, which will lead a student at once to exa- 

 mine every thing in the cryptogamiae that bears this 

 appearance. 



The fructification of the Alices is seen in PI. II. Fi°\ 1, oo, 

 the joint wood vessel and line of life leading up to the fruc- 

 tification, in the leaf of the scolopendrum vulgare : fig. 2, 

 P, the capsule with the pointal ; Q, the elastic line or sta- 

 men : fig. 3, the seeds tied by the line of life. The 

 fructification of the equispturo sylvaticum,* pal ustre, and 



