THE LIFE HISTORY OF FERNS 15 



heart, where the scale is obviously much thickened, there is a 

 cluster of teat-shaped, projecting tubular bodies, called archegonia, 

 and it is in these two kinds of bodies that we find what are essen- 

 tially the flowers of the Fern, and it is through the conjunction 

 of their contents that the young Fern is engendered. The rounded 

 projections, termed the antheridia, contain a number of extremely 

 minute, coiled-up organisms, termed antherozoids, and under 

 proper conditions of moisture, which determines the presence of a 

 dew - like drop of 

 water adherent to 

 the under - side of 

 the scale, the an- 

 theridium bursts, 

 and the anthero- 

 zoids, being freed, 

 proceed to swim 

 about actively by 

 means of the motile 

 cilia, or hairs, with 

 which they are fur- 

 nished. Atthis junc- 

 ture the archegonia, 

 clustered together 

 as described, each 

 of which has an 

 incipient seed em- 

 bedded in the scale 

 at its base, are pre- 

 pared for fertiliza- 

 tion, which is effect- 

 ed by one of the 

 antherozoids pass- 

 ing through it and 

 reaching the inci- 

 pient seed, which 

 then becomes prac- 

 tically a seed proper, and eventually produces a young Fern, the 

 scale acting as nurse by supplying nutrition at the outset, as a sort 

 of substitute for the nourishment which is usually stored up in the 

 seed itself with this object]) It is a very remarkable fact that, 

 minute as these antherozoids are, and truly vegetative as they 

 must be, they obviously are not only endowed with locomotive 

 power, but also with volition, since, when freely swimming, they 

 will definitely travel towards a minute touch of malic acid applied 

 to the scale, and it has been shown that the archegonia, when ready 

 for fertilization, exude this acid, and thus attract the antherozoids 

 in the right direction. 



Fig. 6. — Further development of young Fern. 



