GENERAL REMARKS. 



271 



tion is not to be rejected (because it is only partial, or may be, 

 insufficient) until a better one has been offered. That which I 

 have given, is calculated to reduce the number of Asexual 

 Plants, and so to cause greater harmony with the theory — Omne 

 vivum ex ovo, and it offers a beautiful analogy with certain 

 Phsenogamons plants, of a marked organisation, themselves the 

 analogues of as marked an Animal organisation. These are 

 broad grounds for theory, but they are captivating, and per- 

 haps seductive. 



Much of the imperfect knowledge of the higher Acotyle- 

 donous plants, is due to the writings of those who have insist- 

 ed that these plants are sexless, or that their sexual organs 

 are not analogous to those of Cotyledonous plants. But, had 

 the Linnean name Cryptogamia, and above all, the writings of 

 the great Hedwig been kept in mind and studied, such exhi- 

 bitions would not have occurred. Objectors will do well to 

 bear in mind, the readiness with which the fovillar doctrine of 

 fecundation was, until very lately every where received. Yet 

 if Mr. Brown's ideas of the nature of the fovilla, and the ge- 

 neral doctrine of M. Schleiden be found correct, few hypo- 

 theses will appear so absurd, as that which supposed the dis- 

 charge of the fovilla on, or in the stigma, and the independent 

 passage of granular matter down the style, into the ovarium, 

 and to the ovulum which it vivified, often in a direction op- 

 posed to gravitation. Certainly this hypothesis which they 

 received eagerly, is much more untenable than that which 

 attributes a pistillum to Musci and Hepaticae, a naked ovulum 

 to Azolla and Salvinia, and, fecundation to all ! And as they 

 then admitted at once, what has been found to be inadmissi- 

 ble, let them not reject at once, what may be found to be ad- 

 missible. 



Objections Stated. 



1st. Partial Objections. Salvinia, attributable to three 

 kinds of bodies. 



Azolla : no anther, yet pollen (assumed) highly developed. 



