Sir John Lubbock's Address. : ys 
fungi was first worked out by De Bary in 1863. 
s regards lichens, Schwendener proposed,.in 1869, the 
startling theory, now, however, accepted by some of the high- 
est authorities, that lichens are not autonomous organisms, but 
commensal associations of a fungus parasitic on an alga. ith 
reference to the higher Cryptogams it is hardly too much to 
say that the whole of our exact knowledge of their life-his- 
tory has been obtained during the last half-century. Thus in 
the case of ferns the male organs, or antheridia, were first dis- 
covered by Nageli in 1844, and the archegonia, or female 
84 
was observed by Thuret, while the reproduction of the larger ° 
3 
Lastly, the principle of Alternation of Generations in plants 
was discovered by Hofmeister. This eminent naturalist also, 
in 1851-4, pointed out the homologies of the reproductive pro- 
cesses in mosses, vascular cryptogams, gymnosperms, and 
The fact that systematic and geographical botany have claimed 
a preponderating share of the attention of British phytologists, 
is no doubt in great measure due to the ever-expanding area 
of the British Empire, and the rich botanical treasures which 
