270 
ORGANOGRAPHY. 
BOOK I. 
plane on the upper surface, with oblong bodies embedded 
vertically in the disk, and called anthers ; thirdly, “ of little 
open cups [cystulce)^ sessile on the upper surface of the fronds, 
and containing minute green bodies (gemmce), which have the 
power of producing new' plants.” The first kind is usually 
considered a female flower, its spores being intermixed with 
elaters ; the second male, and the third viviparous, apparatus. 
In the opinion of many modern botanists, the granules of both 
the first two are spores : about the function of the last there is 
no difference of opinion. Mirbel considers the first two to be 
male and female ; but, whatever their functions may be, in 
structure there is but little analogy between them and the 
organs of more perfect plants. Meyen describes spermatic 
animalcules, resembling the genus Vibrio, as occupying the 
interior of each grain of the supposed pollen in Marchantia 
polymorpha. {Comptes Rendus^ vi. 533.) 
In Anthoceros, while the vegetation is the same as in Mar- 
chantia, the organs of reproduction are very different. They 
consist of a subulate column, issuing from a perichaetium 
perpendicular to the frond, and dividing half way into two 
valves, which discover, upon opening, a subulate columella, 
to which sporules are attached without any elaters. There 
are also cystulae upon the frond, in which are enclosed pedi- 
cellate reticulated bodies, called anthers. 
Sphaerocarpus consists of a delicate roundish fi'ond, on the 
surface of which are clustered several cystulae, each of which 
contains a transparent spherule filled with sporules. 
In Riccia the spherules are not surrounded by cystulae, but 
immersed in the substance of the frond. 
7. Lichens. 
These have a lobed frond or thallus (or blastema), the 
inner substance of which consists wholly of reproductive 
matter, that breaks through the upper surface in certain 
forms which have been called fructification. These forms 
are twofold; firstly, shields {scutella or apothecia), which are 
little coloured cups or lines with a hard disk, surrounded by 
a rim, and containing asci, or tubes filled with sporules ; and, 
