376 Extracts from Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom, 



very different sorts exist among its species ; but it does not appear to 

 me that we have sufficient evidence at present to show that the 

 antheridia are male organs. So far as they are concerned we have 

 conjectured and nothing more. All that is proved is : — i. That the 

 spores are bodies which reproduce the plant, and are therefore 

 analogous to seeds : — and ii. That the structure of the antheridia 

 and pistillidia is wholly at variance with that of anthers and pistils 

 properly so called. 



Mr. Griffith, nevertheless, in an elaborate Memoir on Azolla and 

 Salvinia, published in the Calcutta Journal of Natural History, adopts 

 in the fullest extent the opinion that Acrogens have sexes, as will 

 appear hereafter. It is, however, to be remarked that the question is 

 not whether there may not be in such plants as these some trace of 

 a male and female principle, or certain organs in which it is probable 

 that such a principle resides ; but whether there is any such struc- 

 ture as that which we know to be sexual in all classes of plants 

 higher than Acrogens. And I must confess after reading Mr. 

 Griffith's very learned and ingenious observations, that my opinion 

 remains unshaken as to the existence of most essential differences 

 between Acrogens and other plants in all that regards the organs of 

 reproduction. 



EQUISETACEiE. 



61. In fact, they appear quite anologous, as Mr. Griffith has 

 stated, to the elaters of Marchantia and its allies, to which the order 

 bears perhaps a nearer relation than to any other plant. 



BRYACE.E. 



65. Mr. Griffith (Calcutta Journal, Vol. V.) strenuously advocates 

 the sexuality of the antheridia and pistillidia, regarding the former as 

 a true male apparatus, and the latter as a pistil containing an ovule. 

 I do not know that he has anywhere adduced proof of the validity 

 of this opinion ; and it is difficult to comprehend upon what evidence 

 that theory depends ; it may, however, be presumed, that he consi- 

 ders the spores to be analogous to embryos formed in vast numbers. 

 This admirable observer thinks, that evidence in favour of fecunda- 

 tion in some way in Mosses and Liverworts is afforded by the break- 



