86 
to quote Dr. A, W. Bennett,* “ sometimes called shields, the 
four nearer the base are four-sided, the four nearer the apex 
three-sided. From the middle of the inner face of each shield, 
a cylindrical cell, termed a manubrium or handle, projects 
inwards, nearly to the centre of the hollow globule ; and at the 
extremity of each manubrium is a roundish hyaline cell, the 
head or capitulum. The shields, manubria and capitula, 
form, therefore, twenty-four cells, which, together with the 
pedicel-cell of the globule (the older name of the anti ter idium), 
constitute its framework. Each capitulum bears six smaller 
cells, secondary heads or capituhij and from each of these 
grow four long whip-shaped filaments, the number of which, 
therefore, is about 200 (8x 6x4 = 192). Each of these 200 
filaments divides transversely into from 100 to 200 cells, and 
in each of these cells an antherozoid is produced by a peculiar 
transformation of its protoplasmic contents, and is provided 
with two cilia, by means of which it moves rapidly about when 
it escapes by the separation of the shields and rupture of the 
parent-cell. The number of antherozoids produced by a single 
antlieridium may therefore be from 20,000 to 40,000. The 
organ known as the nucule consists of an axial row of cells, 
which form a kind of crown at the summit. At a certain 
period this crown separates and leaves open a canal leading 
down to the central cell, through which the antherozoids enter 
and effect the fertilisation.^ Familiar as the motion of 
antherozoids has become to microscopical observers, it can 
never cease to be one of the standing marvels of plant life. 
But as an argument for design, what better contrivance could 
be adopted for dispersing the spores in water than this ciliary 
motion ? If we could explain the physical causes which pro- 
duce it, it would still be equally wonderful. For efficient 
causes do not exclude final ; and the fundamental fallacy, the 
7 rpwTov ipEvSog (Janet) of Materialism lies in the assumption 
that they do. 
We may next take up the urn of the Urn- mosses ( Bryacece ) as 
an elegant instance of the adaptation of means to ends. In 
mosses there is what is called an alternation of generations ; 
i.e. one stage of the plant which produces antheridia and 
oogonia , the organs which contain the sperm -cells and germ- 
cells respectively, and another which produces vegetative spores 
which germinate without any act of fertilisation. The very 
existence of this double provision for the multiplication of 
* Translation of Thome’s Botany , p. 295. The exact words of Dr. 
Bennett are not given, hut the substance. 
