THE CRTPTOGAMIA OB FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 



625 

 524 



127 



Hepaticae. 523, Marohantia, sterile plant. 524—5, Fertile plant. 526, Vertical section of 

 the fertll-receptacle ; 52T, of a perianth, showing the sporange bursting. 528, One of the elators 

 "With four spores. 529, Portion of it highly magni&ed. 



of the flowering plants. In the mosses, liver- 

 worts, etc., they appear only on the full-grown 

 plant ; In the ferns, Equisetaceje, etc., they ap- 

 pear only on the prothallus, the earliest growth 

 of the spore, and here the archegone gives birth 

 to an embryo, whence at length the true fern 

 arises, while the prothallus dies away 



630. Spores. These 

 are the true reproductive 

 germinating bodies of the 

 Cryptogams. They con- 

 sist each of a single cell, 

 often exceedingly minute, 

 and produced in immense 

 numbers. The cell -wall 

 of the spore may bo sim- 

 ple (Botrytis) or double, 

 as if a cell within a cell ,, .„. .„. 



640 539 B3T 



(ferns). But the spores ^^^^^_ 58r, Agaricus (Mushroom) in various stages : a, 

 are often apparently tearing open the volva ; 5, annulus, the remains of the veil 

 Hniiblp or 2-cplIpd /lirh- W' "• P"™'' "' "5"=^"™' 538, Portion of the gills. 539, 

 ens), or 4-Celled, or 6, 8, Cyathus ; 541, Section. 642, One of the coneeptaoles. 548, 



or many-celled. These ''™"='""" (™"'°"'- B44,Mucor; «, myteiium. 

 compound spores are in fact spore-vessels inclosing several spores yet 

 immature, and called sporidia or theoa-spores. The spores or sporidia 

 are often inclosed in still larger cells called the sac. 



631. Endosporbs and exospores. Spores are developed either in 

 the interior of the parent cell or on the outside of it, and hence the di- 



