ACROGENS. ~ 275 
The appearance of these archegones is contemporaneous with 
that of the fertilising apparatus which makes its appearance in 
the centre of the terminal rosette of the different urn-bearing 
stems. The Polytrichum are, then dieceous. These supposed 
fertilising organs consist of small greyish elongated bodies (as 
represented in 4, Fig. 891). They are more or less spindle-shaped, 
and they are accompanied by cylindrical fillets, called paraphyses, 
or cellulose sacs, which open from above, leaving their contents to 
escape by abrupt jerks at given moments until the organ is com- 
pletely emptied. 
When the matter thus ejected is carefully examined, it is found 
to consist of a tissue very distinctly resembling rings of mail, in 
which each cell encloses a small body rolled up into a ball, with a 
very perceptible swelling upon one point of its circumference. 
These little bodies are in a continual state of rotatory motion ; the 
tissue which contains them dissolves quickly on contact with water. 
The little sac, which is called the azntheridium, becomes flat and 
dry after the emission of the movable corpuscles which it contains. 
These are antherozoids. 
We have said that the appearance of the archegonium is con- 
temporaneous with the antherids. Whatever difficulties may appear 
to oppose themselves to the idea that these antherozoids become 
archegones, it is impossible to deny that such transposition takes 
Place, for on the archegones of certain mosses living antherozoids 
have been found which had already traversed one-third of the 
length of the neck. 
It follows, therefore, from the structure of the archegonium and 
antherids, and from the curious observations which have been 
recorded, that there is now little doubt of the sexuality of these 
little plants. This is further confirmed by the fact on which 
edwig founds his principal argument, namely, that in the dis- 
“cous mosses the archegones arrive at maturity when individuals 
shed with antherids grow in the same neighbourhood. 
Fimices, or FErns. 
In their most graceful type—the Tree Ferns—this order of 
Ns rivals the most beautiful Palms. When they have | 
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