1 
.e^JSS 
; 
ON THE GERMINATION OF FERNS. 
f 
presently speak of. In the first place, therefore, I will describe these bodies as I hare seen them, and 
in a manner which will enable any one possessing a microscope to repeat them for himself. 
The germinal frond must be taken very young, while yet not more than one-eighth of an inch in 
diameter, and before any sign of the first leaf appears rising from its upper 
surface. The little frond will then be found in the shape of a rounded or heart- 
shaped disk, formed of delicate green cells, (Fig. 6) ; a single layer, 
except in the middle, having been gradually developed into this 
form through the stages represented in the annexed figures (Fig. 
1 — 5). To see the peculiar organs, the disk-like cellular plate 
must be carefully laid face downwards upon a slip of glass, and 
f 
washed clean, gently removing the grams of soil with a 
camel-haii- pencil, from among the rootlets. "Alien placed 
under the microscope a number of projecting cells 
(Fig. 6, b) are generally found scattered about 
the frond. These are seen to be again filled 
with minute vesicles (Figs. 7 and 8) which 
escape by the bursting of the protruding cell, either spontaneously or by slight pressure on the glass 
covering the object (Fig. 9). As the vesicles emerge they burst also, and from them springs out a 
spiral thread-like body, thickened at one end, and furnished with cilia, as represented in the wood-cut 
6 
s& 
q o °o* 
They consist of 
(Fig. 10). These, the so-called animalcules, swim about with great rapidity, shooting forward, and 
continually whirling round on their own axes. To see them clearly their motion must be stopped bv 
adding a littlo solution of iodine. 
On the thickened part of the frond, near the notch, are 
to be found in most cases, not always, cellular structures of 
larger size, and more complicated (Fig. G, a). 
conical papilla-, with cellular walls, contain- 
ing a cavity in the centre, as represented in 
the figures "(11 and 12). 
Now, the statements of Suminski are to 
the effect that these last bodies represent ovules, and that a little cell exists 
at the bottom of the cavity (fig. l:.i), which hccuincs fertilized by the entrance 
of one of the spiral bodies, in a manner supposed to have some analogy to 
the entrance of the pollen-tube into the ovules of flowering plants. H 
My own observations have not afforded me a view of any process fa 
of this kind; and elaborate investigations have been made since the r 
publieution of Suininski's paper by two skilful German anatomists, l. 
Dr. Wigand and M. Schacht, with a view to confirm or refute his 
assertions, so important in a physiological point of view. They 
both agree in slating that very extensive research has failed to reveal anything 
i ':' 
II?'" 
