INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 879 



species they are olive, golden yellow, or brown. There is no 

 doubt that the species which at present have been observed to 

 produce nearly naked spores, as Pyrenothece, are mere con- 

 ditions of others, though the normal form of the species may 

 not hitherto have been detected. 



417. Besides the true fruit, a multitude of species exhibit 

 in different positions minute perithecia, producing from their 

 lining wall myriads of minute bodies (Fig. 78, b, c, d). The tissue 

 which supports these bodies is not always the same; sometimes 

 it consists of short simple sporophores, as in Phoma; sometimes 

 of branched articulate threads, as in Cystotricha; sometimes of 

 compacted cells. Their function is not at present ascertained. 

 Itzigsohn pronounced them to be spermatozoids, in consequence 

 of apparently spontaneous motion ; but in such minute bodies 

 molecular motion may often exist, without anything vital. 

 We have at present no proof that anything like real impreg- 

 nation takes place. We may not, indeed, presume that im- 

 pregnation cannot take place in Cryptogams, save by sperma- 

 tozoids, because, where it has been ascertained, the impregna- 

 ting bodies resemble somewhat those in animals ; but we can- 

 not assume the function of these bodies without proof In a 

 few cases, pycnidia are produced. This is, however, only in 

 Ahrothallus and Scutula. The latter has at the same time 

 spermatogonia. 



418. It is curious that the nature of these black specks 

 was not ascertained before, because they were indicated as the 

 probable male organs by the earlier Cryptogamic authors, and 

 readily attract the eye in many species, as, for iastance, in 

 Borrera ciliaris. Their contents, however, cannot be seen 

 without a clearly defining microscope. 



419. The organs which produce the spermatia or stylospores 

 are not always of the same form or character ; sometimes, as 

 in Getraria and Cladonia, they are naked, like the perithecia 

 of some species of Cordyceps ; while occasionally the cavity of 

 the spermatogonium or pycnidium is not simple, but sinuous 

 or multiple, as in homologous bodies in Fungi. The granules 

 themselves, too, vary in form, as do the bodies on which they 

 are supported ; facts which have their exact parallel in Fungi. 



