110 LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
marium’’ seem to be terms perfectly applicable to all forms 
of the female and male organ respectively. In some cases 
the ovarium, or the spermarium, will be found to be simple 
in its structure, as for example in an Alga or a Sponge; 
in other cases complex, as in the majority of animals. 
Again, it may be degenerate and rudimentary, as in the 
Phanerogams ; or indistinguishable from the ovum, as in 
some of the higher Fungi. In all cases, however, the 
organ, whether male or female, whether simple or com- 
plex, can be reduced to the primitive type, viz. a sac or 
tube, the contents of which remain unmodified, forming 
undifferentiated male or female protoplasm (Conjugate, 
e.g. many Fungi), or become modified into two or more 
ova or sperms. If we were to follow out this principle 
all such terms as testis, oogonium, archegonium, Xc. 
would disappear. ‘The organ would, in all cases, be an 
ovarium or a spermarium, greatly modified it might be, 
but still a modification of the type, and to be designated 
by the term applied to the type, with or without a 
qualifying phrase, according to the degree of variation in 
the case in question. The gain to students of comparative 
morphology would under these circumstances be very 
great, for at present homologies are completely hidden by 
the terminology in use. 
The ovum when fertilized by a sperm is undoubtedly a 
potential plant or animal of the species to which the 
parent or parents belong. Why should this product of 
sexual union be called a “‘zygospore,”’ an “‘oospore,”’ or a 
‘“‘carpospore,’ when surely no other term is applicable 
than ‘“‘embryo?” The moment the act of fertilization is 
completed the ovum becomes an embryo, capable of 
development at once, or after a period of rest. 
We now come to the use of the term ‘‘spore”’ in Botany, 
and probably no term in the whole range of botanical 
