CKYPTOGAMOUS OR FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 339 



on a small scale resembles a frondose Liverwort. Upon this body, 

 Niigeli, in 1844, found moving spiral filaments, like those of 'the an- 

 theridia of Mosses, &c. This, as Henfrey remarks, "seemed to 

 destroy all grounds for the assumption of distinct sexes, not only in 

 the Ferns, but in the other Cryptogamia ; for it was argued that the 

 existence of these cellular organs producing moving spiral filaments 

 (the so-called spermatozoa) upon the germinating fronds, proved that 

 they were not to be regarded as in any way connected with the 

 reproductive processes. But an essay published by the Count 

 Suminski in 1848 totally changed the face of the question." On 

 the under side of the delicate, Marchantia-like, germinating frond, 

 Suminski found a number of cellular organs of two distinct kinds, 

 answering to antheridia and pistillidia. The former, which are the 

 more numerous, are cells elevated on the surface of the germinating 

 frond, in the cavity of which are foi-med other cells, filled with 

 minute vesicles containing each a spiral filament coiled up in its in- 

 terior. The organ bursts at its summit, and discharges the vesicles 

 in a mucilaginous mass ; the spiral filaments moving within the 

 vesicles at length make their way out of them and swim about in 

 the water. These filaments, or spermatozoids, resemble those of 

 Mosses, but 'are flat and ribbon-like, as in Chara, and possess accord- 

 ing to Suminski about six, according to Thuret numerous cilia, by 

 whose vibrations they are moved. The pistillidia, if they may be 

 so called, are rounded cavities in the cellular tissue of the same body, 

 opening on the under side, in the bottom of which is a single glob- 

 ular cell, from which the future growth jDroceeds. One or more of 

 the active spermatic filaments, liberated by the bursting of the an- 

 theridia, have been found to enter the open pistillidium, and to come 

 to rest and then 'wither away in contact with this specialized cell. 

 The latter now develops into a hud, or embryo, as it may perhaps 

 be termed, which grows in the ordinary way, pi-oducing an abbrevi- 

 ated axis, sending roots downward and leaf after leaf upwards ; and 

 so producing the mature Fern.* And, as most Ferns are perennial 

 plants, they produce year after year their fructification (consisting 



* The English reader is referred to Henfrey's Translation of Mohl's Anatomy 

 and PhjsiolcKjy of the Vegetable Cell ; and Henfrey's liepwt on tlie Reproduction 

 and supposed Existence of Sexual Organs in the higher Cryptogamous Plants, in the 

 Keport of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, for 1851, 

 reprinted in Silliman's Journal, Vol. 14 and 15 ; from which the above account 

 has been condensed. 



