INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



17 



dustlike bodies are regular globose cells ; a few of these are 

 placed on damp glass, they germinate readily, protruding a 

 single thread. He perceives then, notwithstanding the spiral 



Fig. 7. 

 a. Spheerozosma elegans. Cord. Eng. Bot. t. 2939. 



h. Amphitetras antediluviana, Ehrb. Ealfs in Ann. of Nat. Hist., vol. 

 xi., p. 276, tab. 8, fig. 5. 



cells, that he has before him at least one characteristic feature 

 of Cryptogamic plants, and he is satisfied that he has again 

 fallen on an exceptional case. He has got a Fungus of the 

 Genus Trichia. c. A green slimy matter in a little pool upon 

 the neighbouring heath attracts his notice. This also he sub- 

 mits to his microscope, and sees that it is a production of 

 astonishing beauty, consisting of many couples of curiously 

 pinnatifid joints. (Fig. 7, a.) On examination, he is sure that 

 increase does not take place at the tips, but from the division 

 of the component joints. The plant is not then acrogenous, 

 but it is so completely cellular, that without knowing exr 

 actly what the fruit is, he concludes at once that he has got a 

 Cryptogam, and a further knowledge of closely allied forms will 

 convince him that he has been correct in his apprehension. 

 He has found some difficulty in every case, but he has found 

 it still more impossible to suppose that he had anything to do 

 with Phsenogams. d. Soon however he is still more perplexed. 

 The leaves which lie in the low waterspout of his conser- 

 vatory are covered with a dark red coating. This also is 

 submitted to the microscope, and he has wonders enough 

 before him. Here are globes filled with uniform matter, the 

 endochrome or protoplasm so common in vegetable cells ; 

 others, in which the protoplasm has parted into a definite num- 

 2 



