adverting to the late Mr. Griffith. 375 



frond itself, and is followed by the development of the young cap- 

 sule from a point in the substance of the frond, corresponding to and 

 sometimes distant from the place to which the male influence has 

 been applied. This is founded on observations made on Anthoceros 

 in 1836, from which it would appear that the place of exsertion of 

 the future capsules is pointed out by a slight protuberance, over the 

 apex of which, a flake of matter, like the so called male matter of 

 Musci and Salvinia is spread, sending down to some distance within 

 the frond a tube-like process, which causes the dislocation of the 

 cells of the tissue with which it comes into contact. The future cap- 

 sule is stated in his notes not to be appreciably pre-existent, and its 

 situation is only pointed out by a bulbiform condensation of the tissue 

 of the frond. The young capsule during its development ascends 

 along the same line, and pushes before it a corresponding cylindrical 

 body of the tissue of the frond, the calyptra of authors." But it 

 seems to me, that this very complexity of action is more like varia- 

 tions in self-propagation than phenomena of fecundation, which, 

 among the plants in which that action takes place, is subject to no 

 such modifications. 



MUSCALES. 



55. Upon this point, however, Mr. Griffith, observes, that "it is 

 to be borne in mind, that whereas pollen is the result of a simple se- 

 paration constituting a primary and independent process in Musci, 

 Hepaticae, Salvinidae, the spores, otherwise so similar to pollen, 

 are the result of a secondary process dependent on a primary one, 

 which appears to be remarkably analogous to phanerogamic fecun- 

 dation." 



Finally, Unger, in his account of the anatomy of Riccia (Linncea 

 xiii. 13), states that antheridia and pistillidia are alike at first, 

 that the contents of the first are lost, of the second retained, and 

 that the first perishes while the second is permanent, whence it is 

 reasonable to presume that the emission from the antheridia is a 

 necessary condition for the formation of spores. He therefore 

 regards them as male and female. 



It seems clear from all these statements, that the question of sexes 

 in the Museal alliance is undecided. There is no doubt that two 



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