THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Sept. 1, 1864. 



92 ON THE " NARDOO " PLANT OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA. 



swell considerably, when the table of the microscope was covei'ed with 

 exceedingly minute roundish granules, which were tinged slightly of a 

 brownish colour by iodine. I think it therefore probable that the muci- 

 laginous valves of the involucres contain one of the elements of nutri- 

 tion, though not, in my opinion, the principal one. When they 

 open, their contents consist of two distinct spore-like bodies, spo- 

 rangia and antheridse, which are differently shaped, and perform very 

 different functions. In fact, they are analogues of the ovules and anthers 

 of flowering plants. Esprit Fabre regards them as such, and states that 

 the latter " consists of a membranous sac, very thin and transparent, in 

 which you see numerous pollen grains ; and when crushed beneath the 

 microscope, spermatic granules of extreme smallness are seen to come 

 out." On the other hand, according to Dr. Lindley, Messrs. Brown and 

 Griffith each regard both sorts of bodies as sporules. I have examined 

 them carefully, and have studied the germination of the plant during 

 the last month, when my observations tend to the confirmation of 

 Fabie's views. The sporangial bodies have in a good many instances 

 produced plants, whilst the antheridae after the germination of the 

 former became putrid and decayed. But the most convincing proof of 

 the distinctness of the two bodies is their great difference in chemical 

 composition, which I am not aware of having been previously pointed 

 out. 



The body which germinates and produces the future plant is filled 

 with well-defined and very large starch granules, which have been taken 

 even by some good Cryptogamic botanists for reproductive bodies. I 

 applied the test of iodine to them, which speedily turned them a violet- 

 blue colour, thus revealing their true nature, and at the same time 

 affording evidence of the principal source of nutrition in the "Nardoo." 

 The antheridae were scarcely altered in colour by the application of 

 iodine — if any, it was a very slight tinge of brown. 



Having now, I trust, shown pretty clearly what the nutritive sub- 

 stances are, and the parts which contain them in this sensitive plant, I 

 shall only further make a few brief remarks on the progress of germina- 

 tion. 



The involucres were split and laid on the surface of the mud, covered 

 slightly with water, on the 13th of January, when they were afterwards 

 placed in a warm house, where they speedily softened. In this state, 

 the large oval sporangia could be seen lying among a mass of nearly 

 globose antheridse, about one-eighth part the size of the former. They 

 were without any cord, or attachment to a central cord, and were sur- 

 rounded by a gelatinous fluid. The first young frondlet was seen to be 

 protruded from the nipple end of the sporangia on the ninth day after 

 sowing, when a radicle was at the time pushed into the soil. On the 

 fourteenth day several others were visible, and on the sixteenth day the 

 second frond or leaf was produced, which had a spathulate point. At 

 this period the antheridae were again carefully examined, and found to 



