96 
APPENDIX. 
Trichomanes alata (i), in some of which, as first pointed out by 
Mr. G. B. Wollaston, the prothalli spring from the tips 
of the frond divisions, cutting out the spore heap entirely. 
Our plates illustrate clearly both these types of apospory, 
soral and apical, while in one instance noted by the writer 
the plane surface of the frond broke out into a sort of prothallic 
rash (panapospory). We have thus got rid of the spore, the 
antheridia, antherozoids, and archegonia as essential needs, and to 
get rid of the prothallus itself, we have only to cite those numerous 
cases where bulbil plants are borne on the fronds themselves, of 
which we also give a plate. The next step is to get rid of the 
Fern altogether, i.e., the frond-bearing Fern as we know it, and 
here Dr. Lang demonstrated the apparently impossible by finding 
prothalli which bore spore cases (sporangia) and spores which, 
presuming such 
spores repeated 
the process (not 
yet demon- 
strated), would 
reduce the Fern 
to the lowly 
Marchantia, or 
Liverwort type, 
altogether. We 
thus see that 
recapitulating the 
several phases of 
Fern existence, 
spore, prothallus, 
antheridia, anthe- 
rozoids, arche- 
gonia, fertilised 
seed, and spore- 
bearing Fern, 
each one can 
be dispensed with. 
Nature, however, 
not content with 
demonst r at i n g 
this, conjoins her 
vagaries; thus 
apospory and 
apogamy are connected in some cases, so that the fronds are 
fringed with prothalli, and the prothalli straightway bud back into 
fronds. These curious prothalli, which bear spores, bear also bud 
plants, archegonia, antheridia, and other prothalli indiscriminately, 
Development of Young Fekn (Suminsici). 
