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Q. %,& £ 



BOTANICAL GAZETTE 



Also we find here, in a noted canon of ancient cliff-dwellings 

 near San Francisco Mountains, a large Cystopteris, uniformly 

 bearing bulblets near the apex of the fronds. If this is the 

 species C. bulbifera it has not before been reported so far west 

 as Arizona. 



Fort Moroni, near Flagstaff, Ariz., July 30, 1884. 



On the Sexuality of the Fungi. 1 



BY H. MAESHALL WARD. 



I propose to show that it is probable that the sexuality of the 

 higher Fungi has disappeared, because its purpose has been equally 

 well or better attained otherwise than by means of sexual organs. 



Preliminary to this it will be necessary to be quite clear as to 

 what sexual organs and the sexual process essentially are. 



The two points common to all the cases of sexual reproduc- 

 tion which have been directly observed are the following: 



1. A larger or smaller quantity of protoplasmic material 

 passes from one portion (the male organ) of the same or another 

 individual, into the protoplasm contained in another portion (the 

 female organ). 



2. The protoplasm contained in the female organ therefore 

 becomes capable of further development; either at once, or, more 

 generally, after undergoing a period of rest. 



It is not necessary to quote the numerous cases of observed 

 analogies between the sexual reproduction of animals and plants; 

 but will suffice to note that the essential in the sexual process is 

 always the addition of a portion of protoplasm from the male, to 

 the protoplasm of the female. 



But this is not all. It is now well established iu embryology 

 that the normal ovum, or female mass of protoplasm, is incapable 

 of further development until it has received the protoplasm of 

 the male ; that the latter, in fact, incites the former to further 

 development. 



The outcome of all we know of these matters leads to the 

 conviction that we have in the germination or development of an 



1 The statement of the important hypothesis hereby presented is somewhat 

 abbreviated from the concluding portion of a long and interesting article by 

 Professor "Ward, given under the same title. The review of the historic prog- 

 ress of our knowledge of sexuality in fungi, and the present state of such knowl- 

 edge,, with the numerous illustrative diagrams are necessarily omitted for want 

 of space. — Eds. 



,op 



