ister eeseste wes fee EUR MIR DINE Pincaraies Sri at i me cakes esehestil ay fey New Wark State allege of Agriculture At Cornell Atinersity Ithaca, N. B. Library Cornell University Library QK 505.B47 j handbook of cryptogamic botany, | nt 3 1924 000 407 670 nam Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000407670 CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON A HANDBOOK OF CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY BY ALFRED W. BENNETT, M.A., B.Sc., F.LS. LECTURER ON BOTANY AT ST THOMAS’S HOSPITAL AND GEORGE MURRAY, F.LS. SENIOR ASSISTANT, DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY, BRITISH MUSEUM AND EXAMINER IN BOTANY, GLASGOW UNIVERSITY WITH 3878 ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16% STREET 1889 All rights reserved PREPAC E. IN presenting to the botanical public this ‘Handbook of Cryptogamic Botany,’ the result of the labour of several years, the authors are deeply sensible of its inevitable defects. In traversing so wide a field, it is im- possible that a single worker, or even two, can be practically acquainted with more than a comparatively small portion of it. It is necessary, therefore, to consult a literature, the extent of which, even for a single year, is appalling, and in which it is often difficult to distinguish between trustworthy:and untrustworthy observations. The attempt has, notwith- standing, been made by the authors to acquaint themselves with the contents of every important publication of recent years bearing on Cryptogamic Botany, and issued in English, French, German, Italian, or Latin. It is beyond hope but that inaccuracies have crept in, or that observations which should have been noted have escaped attention. We shall be grateful to workers and writers who will inform us of any such inaccuracies or omissions, and especially to those who will kindly supply us, with a view to future editions, with copies of papers containing records of new and original observations or theories. Those relating to Vascular Cryptogams, Muscinez, Algz, and Schizophyceze should be directed to Mr. Bennett ; those relating to Fungi, Mycetozoa, and Schizo- mycetes to Mr. Murray ; these being the portions of the work actually written respectively by each of us, although we hold ourselves severally responsible for the whole contents of the volume. So rapidly are facts accumulating, and new views of affinity being promulgated, that it may be necessary to change one’s opinion on some points even in the interval between the printing of the earlier and later sheets of a volume like this ; and this must be held to account for any vi PREFACE slight discrepancies that may be apparent between the general scheme of classification contained in the Introduction, and the details as carried out in the work itself. We have also to acknowledge the permission given by the publishers of the following works for electros to be taken from the illustrations contained in them, viz. :—De Bary, ‘Comp. Morph. und Biol. der Pilze, Mycetozoen, und Bacterien,’ and ‘Vorlesungen iiber die Bacterien’ ; Sachs, ‘ Lehrbuch der Botanik ’ ; Goebel, ‘ Grundziige der Systematik’ ; Luerssen, ‘Die Kryptogamen’; Schenk, ‘Handbuch der Botanik’ ; Zopf, ‘Die Spaltpilze’ : Hauck, ‘Die Meeresalgen’ ; Reinke, ‘ Lehrbuch der Botanik’ ; Thomé, ‘Lehrbuch der Botanik’; Le Maout et Decaisne, ‘Traité Général de Botanique’; Solms-Laubach, ‘Einleitung in die Paleophytologie.’ Of the remaining illustrations, many have been taken from nature ; others have been copied from the illustrations of previous works, especi- ally from Cooke’s ‘ British Freshwater Algze’; and for others we have to thank the courtesy of the Councils of the Royal and Linnean Societies, and the publishers of the - Annals of Botany.’ In those branches of Cryptogamic Botany which have not been the immediate object of our own researches, we have freely consulted experts in these several departments, and have received from all the greatest kindness and most valuable assistance. In particular we wish to express our obligations in this respect to Mr. W. CARRUTHERS, Pres. L.S., F.R.S.; Mr. J.G. Baker, F.R.S.; Professor F.O. Bower, F.LS. ; Dr. R. Braituwailte, F.L.S.; Mr. E. M. Houtmes, F.L.S.; and Mr. G. C. Karop, F.R.M.S. ALFRED W. BENNETT, December, 1888. 6 Park VILLAGE East, Lonpon, N.W. GEORGE MURRAY, British Museum (NATuRAL History), CROMWELL Roapb, Lonpon, S.W. CONTENTS. sce PAGE INTRODUCTION . - 5 5 F é I FIRST SUBDIVISION: VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS c - + 10 HETEROSPOROUS VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS ‘ : : a BE “CLASS I, RHIZOCARPEA 5 : F : 21 3) II. SELAGINELLACE . ‘ ‘ ‘ 38 IsosPpOROUS VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS : . 5 ae 4s 58 CLASS III. LYCOPODIACE® . ; , « 53 sg «=o RELICS a . : m 2 om iy 2» V. OPHIOGLOSSACEA ‘ 3 : 3 - 95 » VI. EQUISETACEAL ‘i é - . 100 FossIL VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS . 3 5 . . - 114 SECOND SUBDIVISION: MUSCINEZ . - : « « 132 CLASS VII. MUSCI . ‘ 3 ‘ . 136 », VII]. HEPATICH . . - 156 Foss1L MUSCINE& ' ‘ Fi i » 172 THIRD SUBDIVISION: CHARACEA : ‘ : % 173 : CLASS IX. CHARACEE ‘ ‘ « 5973 FossiL CHARACEZ . ‘ : j = A838 FOURTH SUBDIVISION: ALG: : : 184 CLASS X. FLORIDEZ . 7 A ; ; IgI 3) XI. CONFERVOIDEA HETEROGAM : 219 5) XII. FUCACEZ . : : 228 5, XIII. PHAHOSPOREZ . 7 : fi : 237 5, XIV. CONJUGATE. ‘ : - . 258 33 XV. CONFERVOIDEZ ISOGAMA 3 * . 272 », XVI, MULTINUCLEAT . » . 280 9) XVII. CCLNOBIEE : $ . . . 291 Fossi ALG : : . 3 . s 4 303 vill CONTENTS FIFTH SUBDIVISION: FUNGI . Group I. PHYCOMYCETES CLASS XVIII. OOMYCETES 35 XIX. ZYGOMYCETES . : Group II. SporocarPE& : CLASS XX. ASCOMYCETES ‘ é » XXI. UREDINEZ . XXII. BASIDIOMYCETES 9 SIXTH SUBDIVISION: MYCETOZOA CLASS XXIII. MYXOMYCETES 39 XXIV. ACRASIE SEVENTH SUBDIVISION: PROTOPHYTA Group I. SCHIZOPHYCEE CLASS XXV. PROTOCOCCOIDE.£® XXVI. DIATOMACE . XXVII. CYANOPHYCE® ” ” GROUP II. SCHIZOMYCETES INDEX CLASS XXVIII. SCHIZOMYCETES Errata ‘Page 11, line 22, yor oophore xead oophyte ” Il, 4, 22, for sporophore read sporophyte 122, description of fig. 94, for Haulea read Hawlea 186, line 10, for Cano. read C@aNOBIE 187, » 12, for Mesocarpea, Desmidiee read Mesocarpacer, Desmidiacee 187, lines 19, 24, for Desmidieze read Desmidiacez - 187, line 26, for Mesocarpeze read Mesocarpaceze 190, 5, 4, 4, fr Desmidiez read Desmidiaceze 208, last line, for Hypnazacea: read, HYPNEACE® 209, line 1, for Hypnea read Hypnea 209; 5) 4, , for Rytiphlea read Rytiphloea 213, description of fig. 191, line 1, for corymlosa read corymbifera 250, 4, 3 223, x, 2, for propagules read sphaceles 280, line 6 from bottom, for Dasycladeecea read Dasycladacee 296, last line, for polyhedra read polyhedre 311, description of fig. 271, line 1, for Lib. read de By. 3E33:.. 33 53 275° 4 Qs "for Poriulacee read Portulace 319, line 3, omit full stop after Johow PAGE 305 323 323 353 326, description of fig. 287, line 3, also last line of page, for Portulacee read Portulace 335, line 2, insert comma after Pythium 343, », 15 from bottom, for Tremellini xead Tremellinez 381, ., 13,for Barenetski read Baranetzki HANDBOOK TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. INTRODUCTION. No general handbook to Cryptogamic Botany has appeared in the English language since the Rev. M. J. Berkeley’s in 1857. Since then this department of botanical science has gone through little less than a revolution. Not only has the number of known forms increased enormously, but additions of great importance have been made to our knowledge of structure by the use of the microscope, and to the genetic connection of different forms by the careful following out of the life- history of particular species. The present work is an attempt to bring within the reach of. botanists, and of the public generally who are in- terested in the study of nature, an acquaintance with the present state of our knowledge in this branch of science. It is not intended to replace in any way the numerous excellent handbooks or monographs which exist of special families or groups. Its scope is quite different. Neglect- ing the minor differences by which genera, or in many cases even orders, are distinguished from one another, the aim of the authors has been to bring before the reader the main facts of structure, of develop- ment, and of life-history, which mark the larger groups, contrasting them with one another, and referring only to the broader lines of demarcation within those groups. It is hoped that the work will be found useful to the beginner as well as to the more advanced student. One great difficulty in our work has been to observe a due propor- tion in the space allotted to the different groups ; and this has been in- creased by the necessity for a very different mode of treatment in the higher and the lower forms. ‘Of the Vascular Cryptogams—more nearly allied in many respects to Phanerogams than to the lower Cryptogams— our knowledge is, with some exceptions, as minute and exhaustive as that B 4 INTRODUCTION of Flowering Plants ; and it is improbable that any living forms remain to be discovered differing in any material point of structure from those already known. Here, therefore, we are able to discuss systems of classification which claim something like finality ; and the difficulty of the compiler of a handbook is the enormous amount and the minute detail of the material to his hand, from which he has to cull those por- tions which seem suitable for his object. In order not to extend this portion of the work beyond due limits, it has been necessary frequently to practise rigid compression—beyond, probably, what many of our readers specially interested in these groups would have desired. The same ‘remarks apply, to a large extent, to the Muscinez. But in the Thallophytes, and especially in the lower Algze and Chlorophyllous Protophyta, the case is very different. From the extremely minute size of many of these, and the much smaller extent to which they have been studied, new forms are constantly being discovered, and important ad- ditions are yearly being made to our knowledge of their life-history and of. their structure. It is highly probable that among these groups, as well as in some of the orders of Fungi, forms will yet be discovered which cannot be assigned to any type at present known, gaps in the life- history of many species will yet be filled up, and organisms hitherto placed in widely separated families will ultimately be found to be phases in one cycle of development. We have therefore, in this branch of our subject, brought before our readers every fact of importance known to us which is vouched for by observers in whom we have confidence ; and the classification here submitted is a purely tentative one. In the Algee, the Fungi, and the Protophytes, we do not attempt an exhaustive enumeration of orders or families which shall include every known organism, but describe in detail only those types which are of greater importance, and of which our knowledge is more complete. Something must be said on the classification adopted. In the Vascular Cryptogams and in the Muscinez this proceeds on generally recognised lines, in which there is not much room for difference of opinion. But a very different treatment seemed necessary of the Thallophytes, and of the relationship to one another of the Algz and Fungi, and of the different orders within each of these groups. Here the systems pro- posed are almost as numerous as the original investigators, and it has been necessary to choose that which appeared to the authors to bring together those organisms which are most nearly related to one another. Whether these two familiar terms represent a natural bifurcation in the classification of the lower organisms, is a question which has been very variously answered by different observers and theorisers. About fifteen years ago a system of classification of the Thallophytes was pro- INTRODUCTION 3 posed, on authority entitled to the highest respect,! which altogether abolished the bifurcation into Alge and Fungi. On this system the sole character made use of in their primary classification was the mode of reproduction. First came the Protophyta, in which no sexual mode of reproduction is known, followed by three primary classes (in ascending order)—the Zygosporez, Oosporez, and Carposporeze—distinguished solely by the degree of complexity of the sexual process. Each of these four classes was then divided into a series containing chlorophyll and a series not containing chlorophyll, the former including the organisms hitherto known as Algz, the latter those hitherto known as Fungi. In support of this view it was urged, with great plausibility, that, reproduction being the most important event in the life-history of a plant, the mode in which this is brought about must become fixed in each group by heredity ; while such a subordinate character as the presence or absence of chlorophyll is seen, in the higher plants, to be entirely without importance in determining affinity. But a little consideration will show that it is unsafe to apply the same rule to more highly and to less highly organised forms. In the higher forms of life the mode of sexual reproduction becomes, in its main features, absolutely fixed ; and throughout the vast range of Angiosperms—as in the higher animals— there is entire uniformity in this respect in all important points ; while in external morphology, and in the mode in which they obtain their live- lihood, there is the greatest diversity, even within a narrow circle of affinity. In the animal kingdom we may point, as an illustration of this law, to the existence of such a family as the Cetacea among Mammalia; among flowering plants we have only to consider such phenomena as the occurrence of parasitism, insectivorous habits, or the suppression of chlorophyll, in individual genera dispersed through a large number of natural orders. Even in subsidiary characters connected with the pro- cess of reproduction there is not the uniformity that might have been expected. While such an apparently subordinate point as the number of cotyledons in the embyro is so constant as to give its name to primary divisions of Phanerogams, a character which might have been supposed to be much more important (but which, it is instructive to observe, is. connected with the mode in which the germinating embryo receives its nutriment)—viz. the presence or absence of endosperm—is not always constant, even within narrow limits. The first necessity of a nascent organism is to live ; and hence it is not surprising to find that in the lower forms of life the one character which remains most constant within wide circles of affinity is the mode of life. In the course of development 1 See Sachs’s Zext-book of Botany, 2nd English edition, p. 244. B2 4 INTRODUCTION of the higher forms nature may be said to have tried a variety of experiments in the mode of reproduction ; on the whole there is a con- tinual advance, but still by no means infrequent fallings back to simpler modes ; and unless this law of vetrogression is taken into account, any system of classification must be fro ¢anto imperfect and misleading. If these considerations have any weight, it is not surprising that, although the system of classification of Thallophytes above alluded to has been adopted by a few authorities in this country and on the Continent, it has not met with general acceptance. The adoption of its leading principle, that ‘2 each class Fungi have diverged as ramifications from various types of Algz,’! is seen to lead to such startling results as the collocation in the same class of Spirogyra and Mucor, of Volvox and Peronospora, of Callithamnion and Agaricus. It may, on the contrary, be safely asserted that several of the most important groups among Fungi (take, for example, the Uredinez and the Basidiomycetes) display no traces of genetic affinity with any known class of Algze ; and if, on the other hand, we have forms like Saprolegnia and Chytridium among Fungi, or Leptothrix and Beggiatoa among Protophyta, which betray strong indi- cations of a degraded affinity with groups of Alge, this by no means contradicts the general law that Fungi as a class form an altogether independent series. Retrogression may take the form of the suppression of either the vegetative or the reproductive organs ; and wherever you have one of these sets of organs displaying strong development, while the other set of organs is very feeble or altogether wanting, you have srimd facie evidence of retrogression. Of this examples will be given in the sequel. While, therefore, we adopt the Protophyta as a primary class, with the general limits proposed by Sachs, we have no hesitation in reverting to the time-honoured division of the higher Thallophytes into the two great groups of Algz and Fungi. The classification of Fungi adopted is that of de Bary, consisting of a main series (called the series of the Ascomycetes), composed as follows : (1) Peronosporez (with Ancylistez and Monoblepharis), (2) Sapro- legniez, (3) Mucorini or Zygomycetes, (4) Entomophthorez, (s) Ascomycetes, (6) Uredinez ; and of divergent groups as follows : (7) Chytridinez, (8) Protomyces and Ustilagineze, (9) Doubtful Ascomycetes (Saccharomyces, &c.), (10) Basidiomycetes. The groups 1-4 are Phycomycetes, and 7 and 8 of the second series go with them ; while 9 stands in relation to 5, and ro to 6; and they are 1 Sachs’s Zext-book, p. 244, foot-note. INTRODUCTION 5 so considered together in the linear series in which they come in the book. The Phycomycetes approach the Algez (Chlorophycez) very nearly ; and the other groups of Fungi bear a relation to the Phycomy- cetes which seems to negative any supposition of their independent connection with algal forms. One other point had to be decided, whether to commence at the bottom or at the top of the series. Had our purpose been to construct theoretically a genealogical tree for the lower forms of vegetable life, the former course must necessarily have been pursued, and in the laboratory there is no doubt much to be said in favour of proceeding from the simple to the more complicated types. But to the general student, ‘from the known to the unknown’ is a very sound principle. And, among flowerless plants, not only are the higher types far the best known to the ordinary observer, but they are also those about the life-history of which we have the greatest certainty of knowledge. We have been confirmed in our belief of the correctness of this decision by observing that in the last edition of Huxley and Martin’s ‘ Elementary Biology’ these authors have (in the zoological section) abandoned the ascending for the descending order. The question of terminology is one of the greatest stumbling-blocks to the student of cryptogamy. Not only are new terms being constantly ‘introduced, many of them quite needlessly or from an erroneous idea of structure ; but some that are in continual everyday use are employed in different senses by different writers of repute. The first requisite-in a terminology, after accuracy, is simplicity; and to this end we have, wherever possible, used anglicised instead of Latin and Greek forms. Many of the terms which we employ throughout this volume—such as sporange, archegone, antherid, cenobe, sclerote, epiderm, &c.—will probably be accepted at once ; and it seems strange that the awkward and un- couth foreign forms of these words should have held their ground so long. With others there will no doubt be greater hesitation ; but we hope to see all, or nearly all, of the anglicised forms we have used gradu- ally introduced into all English works on cryptogamic botany, and the same principle possibly extended in other cases where we have not ventured to apply it. A striking instance of the uncertainty which still surrounds crypto- gamic terminology is afforded by the various senses in which different writers use the everyday term ‘spore.’ Le Maout and Decaisne and Asa Gray speak of spores as ‘the analogues of seeds ;’ Berkeley de- scribes the unfertilised oospheres of Fucus as spores ; Vines includes under the term all reproductive cells produced either asexually or sexually ; while Sachs defines a spore as a reproductive cell produced 6 INTRODUCTION either directly or indirectly by an act of fertilisation, reserving the term ‘gonidium’ for those which are produced without any previous act of impregnation. It is obvious that one practical defect of this last sug- gestion is that it may necessitate a perpetual change of terminology as our knowledge advances. Every fresh extension of the domain of sexual fecundation—and it is probable that many such will take place—will involve the removal of a fresh series of reproductive cells from the cate- gory of gonidia to that of spores, even though they may not be the immediate result of an act of fertilisation. Again, if the spores of ferns and mosses are the indirect result of impregnation, it is difficult to say why the term should not ultimately include all reproductive bodies whatever, except the spores of the ‘ apogamous ferns’ with which Farlow and de Bary have recently made us acquainted, and of other similar abnormal productions, which are certainly not the result of impreg- nation, direct or indirect. It seems a sounder principle—and is certainly more convenient to the student—to base a system of terminology on facts which can be confirmed by actual observation, rather than on unproved hypotheses. We propose, therefore, as the basis of our terminology, to restore the term sfore to what has been in the main hitherto its ordinary significa- tion, and to restrict its use to any cell produced by ordinary processes of vegetation, and not directly by a union of sexual elements, which becomes detached for the purpose of direct vegetative propagation. The spore may be the result of ordinary cell-division or of free-cell-formation. In certain cases (z0ospore) its first stage is that of a naked primordial mass of protoplasm. In rare instances it is multicellular, breaking up into a number of cells (Aolyspore, composed of merispores, or breaking up into sporids). ~ The simple term s/ore will, for the sake of convenience, be retained in Muscinex and Vascular Cryptogams ; but in the Thallophytes it will generally be used in the form of one of those compounds to which it so readily lends itself, expressive of the special character of the organ in the class in question. Thus, in the Protophyta we have chlamydo- spores ; in the Myxomycetes, sporangiospores ; in the Saprolegnies and many Algz, zoospores; in the Uredines, seleutospores, cecidiospores, uredospores, and spforids ; in the Basidiomycetes, dasidiospores ; in the Ascomycetes (including Lichenes), ascospores, polyspores, and merispores ; in the Diatomacez, auxospores ; in the CEdogoniacer, androspores ; in the Floridez, setraspores ; and others belonging to special groups. The cell in which the spores are formed will, in almost all cases, be called a sporange ; and this term will be compounded in the same way as spore. INTRODUCTION 7 In describing the heterosporous Vascular Cryptogams it is usual to speak of the spores which give rise to the female prothallium and those which give birth to antherozoids as ‘ macrospores’ and ‘ microspores’ respectively. The first of these terms is doubly objectionable : firstly, etymologically, the proper meaning of axpés being not ‘large,’ but ‘long ;’ and secondly, from the close similarity in sound of the two terms, an inconvenience, especially in oral instructiun, which every teacher must have experienced. Seeing that the correct and far preferable terms megaspore and microspore are used by Berkeley, Areschoug, Carpenter, and others, it is difficult to understand how ‘ macrospore’ can ever have got into general use ; and these terms, together with megasporange and mucrosporange, will be used in the following pages. For similar reasons megazoospore is always used instead of ‘macrozoospore.’ The male organs of fecundation are so uniform in their structure throughout Cryptogams that very little complication has found its way into their terminology. The cell or more complicated structure in which the male element is formed is uniformly known among Cormophytes as well as Thallophytes as an antherid ; the fecundating bodies are almost invariably naked masses of protoplasm, provided with vibratile cilia, endowed with apparently spontaneous motion, and bearing the appro- priate name of aztherozoids or ‘spermatozoids.’ The former of these is perferable for two reasons; from its etymological connection with antherid, and because the use of terms compounded from ‘ sperm’ should, for reasons to be detailed presently, be avoided for male organs. In only two important groups, Florideze and Ascomycetes, are the fecundating bodies destitute of vibratile cilia and of spontaneous motion : in the former case they are still usually termed ‘antherozoids ;’ in the latter ‘ spermatia,’ and their receptacles ‘spermogonia.’ In order to mark the difference in structure from true antherozoids, it is proposed to designate these motionless bodies in both cases pod/inoids ; the term ‘spermogone’ is altogether unnecessary, the organ being a true antherid. A satisfactory terminology of the female reproductive organs presents greater difficulties, from the much greater variety of structure, and the larger number of terms already in use. The limits we have placed to the use of the term ‘spore’ and its compounds require the abandonment of ‘oospore’'for the fertilised ovum or oosphere in its encysted state (enclosed in a cell-wall), anterior to its segmentation into the embryo ; and this is the most important change involved in the terminology of the present volume. In devising a term which shall include all those bodies which are: the immediate result of impregnation, it was necessary to take two points specially into account. Firstly, the term must be capable of & INTRODUCTION defence on etymological grounds ; and secondly, it must, like ‘spore,’ be suited for ready combination. After much consideration we have de- cided on adopting the syllable sfexm. No doubt the objection will present itself that the Greek owépya, like the Latin ‘semen,’ while origi- nally meaning the ultimate product of fertilisation, came afterwards to signify the male factor in impregnation ; and hence, in zoology, terms derived from these roots are used for the male fertilising bodies. But the objection applies to a much smaller extent to phyto-terminology, and the use in the proposed sense of the syllable ‘sperm’ is justified by the universal employment in phanerogamic botany of such terms as “gymnosperm,’ ‘angiosperm,’ ‘endosperm,’ and ‘ perisperm.’ Of crypto- gamic terms, where the syllable is used in the reverse sense, ‘sperm-cell,’ for antherozoid or pollen-grain, has never come into general use in this country ; ‘spermatozoid’ is easily replaced by ‘antherozoid ;’ ‘ spermo- gonium’ is simply a peculiar form of antherid, and ‘spermatium’ has already been referred to. Accepting this term as the least open to objection of any that could be proposed, it will be found to supply the basis of a symmetrical system of terminology, which will go far toredeem the confusion that at present meets the student at the outset of his re- searches. For the unfertilised female protoplasmic mass the term oosphere is already in general use ; and, though not all that could be desired, it is proposed to retain it. The entire female organ before fer- tilisation, whether unicellular or multicellular, is designated by a set of terms ending in gowe, such as archegone and carpogone, again following existing analogy. The term reproduction itself is often far too vaguely employed by botanical writers. We propose to limit its use, in accordance with its etymology, to the production of a new individual, that is, to a process of impregnation ; all cases of non-sexual multiplication being described as propagation. The object of the writer of a handbook is to gather up and to collate material already existing, winnowing, to the best of his judgment, the wheat from the chaff. Except, therefore, where original observations may have been made by the compiler himself, it will contain nothing new. In compiling from the writings of the original observers it was thought best, as far as possible, to use their own words, and this will account for the frequent close resemblance in the following pages of the descriptions contained to those in such works as de Bary’s ‘Comparative Anatomy of the Phanerogams and Ferns,’ the ‘ Comparative Morphology and Biology of the Fungi, Mycetozoa, and Bacteria,’ by the same writer, the scheme of which has been mainly adopted in outline, and Goebel’s ‘Outlines of Classification and Special Morphology.’ Admirable, on INTRODUCTION 9 the whole, as are the translations of these works by which the Clarendon Press has enriched English scientific literature, it is the original work rather than the translation that we have in all cases followed. We wish here to express the great obligation under which we lie to these writers, and to acknowledge the extent to which we have borrowed from them. In the chapter on Fossil Vascular Cryptogams we have, to a considerable extent, followed Graf.zu Solms-Laubach’s excellent ‘ Einleitung in die Paleophytologie,’ though with some modifications. To the description of each group or family we have appended a bibliography of the researches on which that description is founded ; these having again been consulted, wherever possible, in the original language, ‘10 FIRST SUBDIVISION. VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS. Tue Vascular Cryptogams include all the highest forms of cryptogamic life, and constitute a well-marked group of plants intermediate between the Gymnosperms, or lowest division of Flowering Plants, and the lower or Cellular division of Flowerless Plants. From the former they differ mainly in the mode in which fertilisation is effected ; from the higher forms of the latter in the much greater differentiation of tissues. The term ‘vascular’ Cryptogams is, however, strictly speaking, correct only to a limited degree. Although the arborescent and fruticose species display as well-marked a differentiation of their tissues as Flowering Plants, into epidermal tissue, ‘ vascular’ bundles, and fundamental tissue, and the bundles consist of distinct xylem and phloem (without any intermediate cambium, as in Gymnosperms), it is only rarely, as in that group of Flowering Plants, that the xylem is composed of vessels in the true sense of the term. The Vascular Cryptogams and the highest families of Cellular Cryptogams are distinguished from Flowering Plants by an obvious Alternation of Generations between Sexual Generation or Oophyée, and Non-sexual Generation or Sporophyte. The former is a small and purely cellular structure, usually of very temporary duration, the purpose of which is to bear the sexual organs of reproduction, male azthertds and female archegones, the structure of which is uniform in all essential characters throughout the class, and which are borne on a cellular ex- pansion, the Zrothallium. This prothallium may be either moncecious or dicecious—that is, the male and female organs may be borne on the same or on different prothallia. The act of fertilisation consists in the impregnation of an oosphere, a naked mass of protoplasm contained within the ceztral cell of the archegone, by one or more antherozoids, minute masses of protoplasm endowed with spontaneous motion by means of vibratile cilia, which escape from the cells of the antherid and penetrate to the central cell of the archegone. The immediate result of the impregnation of the oosphere is that it invests itself VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS It with a cell-wall of cellulose, and thus becomes an vosperm, which develops into the eméryoe, and finally into the sporophyte, which is often of great size and extended length of life. It is this that is com- monly known in popular language as the Fern, Club-moss, &c. On it are produced, without any process of fertilisation, the spores, which are always single cells, protected by two or three coats, and giving rise on their part, when they germinate, to the oophyte. This is the cycle of ‘development in the Isosporous families of Vascular Cryptogams. In the Heterosporous families there are produced (always on the same plant) two different. kinds of spore, differing very greatly in size—larger mega- spores and smaller microspores. The former produce female prothallia, that is, those which bear archegones only ; the latter male prothallia, bearing antherids only, or even antherozoids, without the intervention of a male prothallium or antherid. The spores are always endogenous structures, produced by free-cell-formation within a spore-case or sporange, which again, in the heterosporous families, is a megasporange or a microsporange, according as it contains mégaspores or microspores. The sporanges are often collected into groups known as sori, and these may again be enclosed within special chambers, sporocarps or conceptacles. Various kinds of vegetative propagation, similar to those of Flowering Plants, also occur on both oophyte and sporophyte ; and in certain ex- ceptional cases either the oophore or the sporophore may be entirely suppressed, constituting the phenomena of afogamy and apospory re- spectively. These will be described especially under Ferns, where they are of the most common occurrence. It may be useful in this place to compare the structure of the organs of reproduction and the phenomena of impregnation in Vascular Cryptogams with those of Phanerogams, and to endeavour to trace the requisite homologies,' although these cannot be fully understood with- out some knowledge of the details of structure described under the separate families. It has been usual to compare the pollen-grain of Phanerogams with the antherozoid of Vascular Cryptogams ; but this is not strictly accurate. The essence of the act of fecundation consists in the coalescence of the protoplasmic contents of an active (male) and of a passive (female) cell. The protoplasmic endoblast or cell-contents in each case must, therefore, be homologous ; that is, the antherozoid with the protoplasmic contents of the pollen-grain which, in Flowering Plants, is brought into contact with the embryonic vesicle by means of the pollen- 1 Hofmeister was the first to point out these homologies in his Vergleich. Unters. tiber Keimung u.s.w. der hiheren Kryptogamen (see the Ray Society’s translation, Oz the Germination, &¢., of the Higher Cryptogamia, p. 438). They have since been traced out more completely by Hanstein, Celakovsky, and others. t2 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS tube ; or probably the more correct homology is that of the nucleus of the antherozoid with the ‘generative’ nucleus of the pollen-grain. The most important difference between Cryptogams and Phanerogams lies in the mode in which this contact between the male and female elements is brought about. In Flowering Plants it takes place by the penetration into the embryo-sac, through the micropyle of the ovule, of the extension of the inner coat of the pollen-grain known as the pollen-tube, excited into activity by the viscid secretion of the stigma. The pollen-grain has therefore in the first place to be conveyed from the anther to the stigma ; and the various parts of the flower of Flowering Plantsare all more or less concerned, directly or indirectly, with arrangements for facilitating the conveyance of pollen. In Flowerless Plants, on the contrary, contact between the male and female elements is effected by the protoplasmic contents escaping from the male cells and coming directly into contact with the oosphere in consequence of an independent power of motion imparted to these naked masses of protoplasm (antherozoids) by the vibratile cilia with which they are provided. This impregnation always takes place in water or moisture, and no external agency is needed to bring it about. Hence the absence from all Flowerless Plants of any conspicuous compound organ analogous to the flower of Phanerogams. The true homology of the pollen-grain of Phanerogams appears to be with the microspore of the heterosporous Vascular Cryptogams, notwith- standing the fact that the contents of the microspore break up into a number of antherozoids, each capable of impregnating an oosphere ; while the pollen-grain, as a rule, emits only a single pollen-tube. Here, as in other phenomena, we are guided to the true homology by compar- ing the highest Cryptogams with the lowest Phanerogams, the Gymno- sperms, which form a connecting link between them and Angiosperms. In all Gymnosperms, as in some Angiosperms, the pollen-grain is divided into several cells, only one of which (very much larger than all the rest) emits a short pollen-tube. The large fertile cell in the pollen- grain of Gymnosperms corresponds to the larger fertile portion of the microspore of Selaginellacez, to the entire contents of the microspore of Marsileacez, to the terminal cell of the germinating filament in Salviniacez, and to the antherid of the isosporous Vascular Cryptogams. In Angiosperms the sterile cells of the pollen-grain of Gymnosperms appear to be sometimes entirely suppressed, and the pollen-grain becomes unicellular. The contents of the pollen-grain of Angiosperms, together with the intine or inner coating of the grain, are therefore homologous with the antherid of Cryptogams. Seeing that the motile antherozoids have to be conveyed to the oosphere through the medium of water, it is convenient for both antherid and archegone to be freely VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS 13 exposed to the action of moisture at the time of maturity. Hence, in all the isosporous Vascular Cryptogams, by far the largest portion of the product of germination of the hermaphrodite spore is the cellular tissue or prothallium (reduced to a comparatively small size in the Lycopo- diaceze and Ophioglossaceze), on which are borne both the antherids and the archegones. Inthe heterosporous Salviniaceze the male prothallium, is reduced to a simple unseptated germinating filament; and in Marsileacee it altogether disappears. In Selaginellaceze it takes the form of the small sterile cells at one extremity of the microspore ; in Gymno- sperms, of the sterile cells of the pollen-grain ; in Angiosperms it is almost entirely suppressed. The contents of the pollen-grain corre- Fic. u.—I., male catkin of Zamia (Cycadez), Fic. 2.—Peltate scale of Eguisetunt, LI. III., antheriferous scale and pollen-sacs. with sporanges sg. (After Sachs.) sponding to the antherozoids, the pollen-grain itself becomes homologous with the microspore, the pollen-sac or anther-cell to the microsporange. Even in external appearance the pollen-sacs of Coniferee and Cycadee bear a striking resemblance to the sporanges of some Vascular Crypto- gams. The modes of formation of the pollen-grains within the pollen- sac and of spores within the sporange, from an original archespore, are identical in their main features. Turning now to the female organs of reproduction, we must trace the homology of these back from the product of the union of the two elements, which in all the higher plants, whether flowering or flowerless, may be termed the oosperm, developing later into the embryo. In 14 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS Flowering Plants this is the product of the action of the contents of the pollen-grain on the protoplasmic embryonic or germinal vesicles ; in the higher Flowerless Plants, of the action of the antherozoid on the oosphere, or protoplasmic contents -of the central cell of the archegone. The naked masses of protoplasm known as the germinal vesicles (or perhaps rather that one only which is ultimately fecundated) are therefore un- questionably homologous with the naked mass of protoplasm known as the oosphere. In Vascular Cryptogams the central cell which contains the oosphere is a portion of an archegone which is borne on a prothallium resulting from the germination of a spore or of a megaspore, as the case may be. To understand the homologies with the higher Phanerogams we must again have recourse to the intermediate Gymnosperms. In Fic. 4.— Female prothallium of Mar- silea, with archegone a and oo- sphere 0, (After Hanstein.) a Fic. 3.—Fertilisation of Adzes (Conifere). 2, pollen-grains ; fs, pollen-tube ; ¢, embryo- sac; a secondary embryo-sac or corpusculum. (x 60. this class the female elements are not directly developed in the in- terior of the embryo-sac, but within certain chambers produced within the embryo-sac, the secondary embryo-sacs or ‘corpuscula, the homo- logues of the central cell of the archegone. In connection with them there have been detected other structures comparable to the neck and the canal-cells of the archegone. The object of the peculiar structure of the archegone and the deliquescence of the canal-cells being to facili- tate the passage of the motile antherozoids to the oosphere, these are no longer wanted when impregnation is effected by means of a pollen- tube. The archegone (except the central cell) is therefore reduced to a rudimentary condition in Gymnosperms, and disappears altogether in Angiosperms, where the embryonic vesicles are produced directly within VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS 15 e embryo-sac, the homologue of the megaspore. The nucellus of the rule must then be regarded as corresponding to the megasporange ; it it is difficult to carry the homology further. In Filices and Lyco- diaceze an hermaphrodite prothallium usually exposes both kinds of ‘xual organ to the action of moisture ; in Equisetacez we find a normal fferentiation into male and female prothallia, but produced from one nd of spore only ; in the heterosporous families the differentiation is ried back to the spores and sporanges, and the female prothallium altogether a subordinate product, and never has any separate existence yart from the megaspore, within which it is more or less concealed, aly that part which bears the archegones being exposed. In Angio- yerms it has been suggested that we have a rudiment of the female rothallium surviving in the peculiar ‘antipodal cells’ found within the mbryo-sac in certain natural orders ; but the homology is doubtful. a the Selaginellaceze we find also the rudiments of two other structures hich characterise the ovule of Flowering Plants. The sterile tissue which ccupies the lower part of the megaspore in this order is probably the rst appearance of the endosperm (albumen) which is found in the seed f a large number of Flowering Plants ; the purpose in both cases being 1e same, to provide the embryo with nutritive material during the early ages of its growth. In all Phanerogams the young embryo is borne n a longer or shorter pedicel of cellular structure, the suspensor or pro- mbryo, which, again, we find for the first time in the same order of cryptogams. In all the isosporous Vascular Cryptogams the sexual generation or ophyte has an independent existence distinct from the spore which roduced it ; while in the heterosporous families the prothallium recedes ore and more into the background, existing only within the megaspore ; nd at the same time the male organs or antherids become more rudi- ientary in structure. In Gymnosperms the female prothallium and the ntherids (as distinct from the antherozoids) have become much reduced, nd in Angiosperms have completely disappeared. While, therefore, in Sharacee alternation of generations disappears by the suppression of he non-sexual generation which bears the spores, in Phanerogams the ame result is brought about by an exactly opposite process, the sup- wession of the sexual generation or prothallium with its antherids and rchegones, and the coalescence of male and female elements takes lace within the non-sexually produced embryo-sac of the ovule, which orresponds to the megaspore. The life-history and general structure of the various organs in 7ascular Cryptogams may now be described more in detail. The immediate product of the germination of the spore or megaspore 16 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS is always a prothallium, which is usually a green plate of tissue lying flat’ on the soil, very commonly lobed or reniform in shape, sometimes microscopic, but often quite visible to the naked eye, from } to 4.an inch in diameter, and constituting, with its organs of reproduction, the oophore, oophyte, or sexual generation. The prothallium usually disappears as soon _as the non-sexual generation has firmly rooted itself in the soil ; but in Gymnogramme (Filices) it attains a larger size, and continues its existence for a considerable time, producing a succession of reproductive organs. The oophyte never becomes differentiated into stem and leaves, as in the Muscinez, nor does it contain any vascular tissue. It usually consists of only a single layer of cells filled with chlorophyll, except a marginal cushion, where there are several layers. Here it puts out into the soil numerous colourless elongated cells, the organs of attachment, or rhizoids,! among which, or scattered over the whole of the under surface and margin, are the archegones and antherids. True vegetative budding takes place but rarely on the prothallium ; but it sometimes, in certain Filices, exhibits apogamy, the sporophore springing directly from it, without the intervention of the sexual organs. In some Lyco- podiacez and in the Ophioglossacez the prothallium is subterranean, destitute of chlorophyll, and cylindrical or tuberous. In the Hymeno- phyllaceze (Filices) it is often filiform. In the isosporous families the prothallium is most commonly moncecious, less often dicecious. In the heterosporous families it is far less fully developed. That which arises from a megaspore is very small, formed within the spore, and at no period maintains an independent existence; while that developed within a microspore is still more rudimentary. The archegones of Vascular Cryptogams are produced on the pro- thallium, usually on the under side of the cushion. Each archegone consists of a swollen basal portion or venéer, and a neck, usually composed of four longitudinal rows of cells; the venter is buried in the tissue of the prothallium, the neck alone projecting above it. The arche- gone originates from a superficial. cell of the prothallium, which divides by a tangential wall into an inner and an outer cell ; the latter then develops, by further divisions, into the four rows of cells constitut- ing the neck, which is, therefore, always comparatively short. The inner cell puts out a protuberance between the neck-cells, which is first of all separated as the weck-canal-cell, and below it a small portion is again separated from the lower larger cell as the ventral canal-cell ; the 1 These organs are frequently termed root-hairs; but it is better to confine this term to the epidermal appendages (trichomes) of the roots of Phanerogams and of the sporophyte generation of Vascular Cryptogams, between which and true rhizoids there is a functional rather than a morphological homology. VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS 17 ywermost portion of the lowest cell remains of a comparatively large ze, and is the central cell containing the oosphere. When mature, the vo canal-cells deliquescé into mucilage, which swells up considerably, rives apart the four apical lid-cells or stigmatic cells of the neck, and ejected ; an open canal being thus formed, to allow the access of the atherozoids to the oosphere, which always takes place in moisture, the jected mucilage assisting also in this process. The antherids appear as roundish papille on the margin, or dispersed ver the under surface of the prothallium ; in some cases they are im- edded in its tissue. Each antherid consists of a comparatively small umber of cells ; when mature the cell-walls are ruptured under water, ad from each escapes a swarming aztherozoid. The antherozoids are sirally coiled threads of protoplasm, the body of which is formed from ie nucleus of the mother-cell, with a number of fine vibratile cilia n the anterior coils. There is generally attached to each anthero- did, as it escapes from its mother-cell, a vesicle of protoplasm contain- ig starch-grains, formed out of the cytoplasm of the mother-cell, which, dhering to one of its posterior coils, is dragged along with it during its varming, but becomes detached before its entry into the neck of the rchegone. In the heterosporous families the antherid is of very simple ‘ructure, and is either produced directly within the microspore, or after 1e preliminary formation of a few cells, which must be regarded as a idimentary prothallium. The form and size of the non-sexual generation or sporophyte vary ‘ithin very wide limits, from the filmy, moss-like Hymenophyllacez Filices) to the arborescent tree-ferns (Filices), and must be described iore in detail under the various families. It arises in the archegone, om the oosferm or fertilised oosphere. The first effect of impregnation that the oosphere invests itself with a cell-wall of cellulose, thus ecoming the oosperm, which then divides into a small number of ndifferentiated cells, in which condition it is known as the emdryo. In 1e earliest subsequent divisions of the embryo may be recognised the idiments of the first voof, of the first leaf or cotyledon, and of the apex f the stem; while at the same time a lateral outgrowth termed the foot . formed at the bottom of the venter, and draws from the prothallium 1e first nourishment for the young plant. The venter at first grows igorously, enveloping the embryo, until this latter finally protrudes ee, leaving the foot still attached to it for some time as a nutritive tgan. The primary root soon disappears, and in some Hymenophyl- .ceze, and in Salvinia and Psilotum, is not followed by others ; but in ye great majority of cases other true roots succeed in acropetal suc- ession, and the prothallium then disappears. The cotyledon always Cc 18 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS remains small ; the first stem bends upwards, and other leaves of a more complicated structure appear on it. The voots of Vascular Cryptogams usually arise in acropetal succession on the stem (in some ferns on the leaf-stalk), and branch either mono- podially or dichotomously. There is never one preponderating root continucus in a downward direction with the main stem corresponding to the tap-root in Flowering Plants. They are distinguished from the roots of Flowering Plants by the lateral roots springing, not from the procambium, but from the innermost cortical layer of the mother-root. They are abundantly covered with vvot-hairs, trichomic formations by means of which the nutritive materials are absorbed from the soil. They possess a true voot-cap. Salvinia (Rhizocarpeze) and Psilotum (Lycopodiacez) are altogether rootless, as also are a few Hymenophyl- laceze (Filices), the function of roots being performed by underground branches of the stem. The degree of development of the stem varies within very wide limits. In the tree-ferns it is of erect habit, and attains great height and consider- able thickness. In many herbaceous ferns the internodes of the erect stem are altogether suppressed, while the underground portion forms an elongated rhizome. In the existing Lycopodiacez, and in some Sela- ginellacez the very elongated creeping stem is mainly above ground ; in the rootless forms, like Psilotum, branches of the stem bending down into the soil perform the function of roots. In some paludose species belonging to the Rhizocarpeze the stem is almost entirely suppressed, and in Salvinia the whole plant floats on the surface of the water. The mode of branching is either monopodial or dichotomous ; the leaves do not usually produce buds and branches in their axils, as in Flowering Plants. In all the larger species the stem displays a distinct differentiation of tissues into the three systems, fundamental, epidermal, and ‘ vascular’ or fascicular. The so-called vascular bundles are closed, \ike those of Mono- cotyledons— that is, they contain no formative cambium ; and they are usually but not always concentric, the phloem portion surrounding the xylem portion in the form of a phloem-sheath. Each bundle, or a group of bundles, is again very frequently surrounded by a single layer of strongly sclerenchymatous cells belonging to the fundamentul tissue, the vascular bundle-sheath, where it encloses a single, or plerome-sheath, while it surrounds a group of bundles. The prevalent, though not the exclusive form of thickening in the xylem is that of sca/ariform tra- cheides ; true vessels formed from the coalescence of cells are rare ; in the phloem szeve-¢udes are of common occurrence. Potonié holds that there is no sharp differentiation between the xylem and phloem portions VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS 19 of the ‘vascular’ bundles of Vascular Cryptogams, and prefers for them the terms Aadrome and Jeptome respectively. According to Van Tieghem, the secondary tissues, like those of Flowering Plants, proceed normally from two concentric generating layers—an external one in the cortex, forming bark outwardly and secondary cortex inwardly, and an inner one in the central ‘vascular’ cylinder intercalated in the liber and in the xylem of the primary ‘ vascular’ bundles, producing secondary liber outwardly and secondary xylem inwardly. The epiderm is in most cases abun- dantly provided with trichomic appendages of various kinds. The size and form of the leaves are extremely various. In Lycopo- dium, Selaginella, and some other genera, they are very small, unseg- mented, and lanceolate, not unlike those of mosses, and form a dense imbricated clothing to the stem ; in Psilotum they are altogether rudi- mentary ; in the Equisetaceze they are reduced to divisions or teeth of a membranous sheath ; in Isoétes (Selaginellacec), Pilularia (Rhizo- carpez), and Phylloglossum (Lycopodiaceze), they are long, narrow, and awl-shaped. In some ferns the barren and fertile leaves differ from one another in appearance, and especially in the degree of division of the lamina. In Salvinia they are of two kinds, one floating on the surface of the water and entire, the other submerged, very finely divided, and performing the function of a root ; in Azolla (Rhizocarpeze) they are floating and bilobed. In some genera of Filices and their allies the leaves are quite entire ; in the Hymenophyllacez they are very delicate, consisting of only a single layer of cells, and in the smaller species closely resemble those of the foliose Hepaticze ; while in most ferns they are of considerable (in the tree-ferns of gigantic) size, with well-marked petiole, rachis, and lamina, and distinguished by the great extent to which the lamina is divided. In most cases (except the Hymenophyl- laceze) they are abundantly provided with s/omates. ‘The tissue beneath the epiderm consists of a parenchymatous mesophyll containing abun- dance of chlorophyll, the portion of which adjacent to the upper epiderm is frequently developed as palisade-parenchyme. This meso- phyll is permeated by ‘vascular’ bundles or veins, which branch off from the cauline bundles, and are distinguished, in the majority of ferns, by their dichotomous mode of branching, in contrast to the reticulate anastomosing in Dicotyledons, and the parallel arrangement in most Monocotyledons. Among Gymnosperms a similar arrangement is pre- sented by Salisburia and Stangeria. The floral metamorphosis of the leaves of Flowering Plants does not occur in Vascular Cryptogams, nor their special agglomeration round the organs of reproduction as in mosses. The mature ssovange, theca, or spore-case, is usually a roundish c2 20 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS capsule borne ona stalk, of small size and simple structure. Its morpho- logical value varies greatly, and will be referred to more particularly under the separate families. In the majority of Filices the sporanges are trichomic structures, and are collected into groups or sovi, which are always located in connection with a ‘vascular’ bundle on the under side or margin of the leaf. In the Marattiacee they spring from a hypo- dermal mass of tissue. In the Ophioglossaceze a segment of a leaf is transformed into sporanges. In Selaginella and Lycopodium they arise from the growing point of the stem above the axil of a leaf. In Psilotum they are sunk in the extremity of branchlets of a peculiar form. In the Salviniaceze they are enclosed in receptacles or sporocarps, which are themselves modifications of divisions of the leaf. The mode of formation of the sZores closely corresponds to that of the pollen-grains in Flowering Plants. The spore-forming tissue can always be traced back to a single cell or a row or layer of cells, the avchespore, which may be dis- tinguished at a very early period from the remaining cellular tissue by the nature of its contents. From this proceeds the sporagenous tissue, which afterwards becomes the mother-cells of the spores by perfectly regular divisions, the details of which differ in the different families. This is surrounded by one or more layers of cells, the ¢afetal cells or tapete, and the whole is enclosed in the wall of the sporange, itself composed of one or more layers of cells. In the heterosporous families the distinction between megaspores and microspores is manifested only at a comparatively late period in their development. In the iso- sporous families the spores are always strictly unicellular, very commonly elliptical or reniform in shape. The coat always consists of two separ- able layers—an outer cuticularised exospore, often elevated into warts or other prominences ; and an inner endospore, composed of cellulose, which bursts through the exospore on germination, producing the germ-jilament, which develops by cell-division into the prothallium. In the mega- spores of the heterosporous families these are further protected on the outside by a third separable, greatly hardened layer, the epispore. The mode in which the spores escape from the sporange differs in the dif- ferent families. A purely vegetative mode of propagation by means of gemme or bulbils borne on the sporophyte occurs especially in Filices and Equisetaceze ; on the oophyte vegetative propagation is less common. The classification of Vascular Cryptogams is attended with consider- able difficulty. None of the systems as yet produced have much claim to be regarded as natural ; and, until some doubtful points are cleared up connected with fossil forms which may be links between existing families, the primary distinction into eterosporous and Lsosporous VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS 21 Vascular Cryptogams is so convenient, that we have decided to adhere to it, without dogmatising as to its permanent retention. In the boundaries of the families, again, there is equal room for diversity of opinion. Whether to retain the Psilotes under Lycopodiacee, and the Isoéteze under Selaginellaceze, and whether to regard the true Filices, the Marattiacez, and the Ophioglossacez as constituting one, two, or three classes, are points on which there is much to be said in favour of classifications different from that which we have decided to adopt. LITERATURE. Thuret—(Zoospores and Antherids) Ann. Sc. Nat., vol. xiv., 1850, p. 214; and vol. xvi., p. 5. Hofmeister— Germination, Development, and Fructification of the Higher Crypto- gams, Ray Soc., 1862. Schacht—Die Spermatozoiden, Braunschweig, 1864. Dippel—(Fibrovasc. Bundles) Ber. Deutsch. Naturf. u. Aerzte, 1865. Nigeli u. Leitgeb—(Root) Nageli’s Beitr. z. wiss. Bot., 1867. Kny—(Prothallium) Sitzber. Ges. Naturf. Freunde, Berlin, 1868. Millardet— (Prothallium) 1869. Russow—Vergleich. Unters., Petersburg, 1872. Janczewski- (Archegone) Bot. Zeit., 1872, p. 418. Goebel— (Sporangia) Bot. Zeit., 1880 and 1881. Sadebeck— Die Gefasskryptogamen, 1880. Prantl —Morphologie der Gefasskrypt., 1881. Van Tieghem-— Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 1883, p. 169. Potonié—(Vasc. Bundles) Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin, 1883. Leitgeb— (Spores) Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., 1883, p. 246. Celakovsky—Pringsheim’s Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot., xiv., 1884, p. 291. Bower—(Leaf) Proc. Roy. Soc., xxxvii., 1884, p. 61. Rabenhorst— Crypt. Flora Deutschland, Vasc. Crypt., by Luerssen, 1884-88. De Bary— Comparative Anatomy of Phanerogams and Ferns, 1884. Klein— (Dehiscence of Sporange) Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 1884, p. 292. Leclerc du Sablon—(Spores) Ann. Sc. Nat., vol. ii., 1885, p. 5. Campbell —(Antherozoids) Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., 1887, p. 120. Baker — Handbook to Fern Allies, 1887. HETEROSPOROUS VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS. Class I.—Rhizocarpez. ‘The Rhizocarpez or Hydropteridez constitute a class composed of only a small number of genera, none of which includes more than a few species. They grow submerged in or floating on water, and derive their name from the circumstance that the non-sexual organs of propagation, are produced in the radicular region, or near the base of the leaves. 22 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS The spores are of two kinds, one of which is many hundred times larger than the other. The larger spores, or megaspores, prodyced in megasporanges, are female ; the smaller spores, or mécrospores, produced Fic. 5.—Pilularia globulifera L., with —-F 1G. 6. —Marsilea quadrifolia L., with fructifi- fructification, natural size. (After cation, natural size, and fructification en- Luerssen.) larged. (After Luerssen.) in microsporanges, are male. The megaspore is not completely spherical, but has a distinct apical protuberance, which at the period of maturity is enveloped in a thick firm layer termed the efispore, formed by the RAIZOCARPE A 23 hardening of mucilage derived from the disorganisation and deliques- cence of a portion of the contents of the sporange. The female prothal- lium is formed within the apical papilla of the megaspore, and is exposed by the bursting of the enveloping epispore. It never completely frees itself from the megaspore, and is usually altogether destitute of chlorophyll. It bears one or more archegones, differing from one another in smaller points of structure in the different genera. The microspores do not give birth to a male prothallium, nor even to antherids, in the sense in which the terms are employed elsewhere in sy ik tN = AY ~\ RL Fic. 7.—Salvinia natans L. A and B natural size, the latter with two aérial leaves and sub- merged fertile leaves ; C, two sporocarps, slightly magnified and diagrammatic, one con- taining a few megasporanges, the other a large number of microsporanges ; D, section of empty sporocarp, slightly magnified. (After Luerssen.) Vascular Cryptogams ; the contents divide more or less directly into the parent-cells of the az¢herozords, which, accompanied by peculiar vesicles attached to them, reach and impregnate the oosphere contained in the central cell of the archegone. The external form of the sporophyte or non-sexual generation varies widely in the different genera. The growth of both stem and root is always the result of successive divisions from a single apical cell. The stem is extremely abbreviated in Salvinia (Schreb.) and Azolla (Lam.) ; procumbentand creeping in Marsilea (L.)and Pilularia(L.). It is traversed 24 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS by closed concentric ‘ vascular’ bundles, each surrounded by its bundle- sheath, and the branching is always monopodial. The roots—except in Salvinia, which is rootless—are fibrous, are furnished with a root-cap, and branch monopodially. The leaves also vary greatly inform. In Pilularia they are erect, cylindrical, and setiform ; in Marsilea (L.) the lamina consists of several distinct leaflets.at the extremity of a more or less elongated petiole. In both these genera the vernation is circinate. In Azolla the leaves are deeply bifid. Salvinia is remarkably hetero- rhyllous. While the majority of the leaves retain an ordinary leaf-like habit, others develop into coriaceous scutiform structures, while others again divide into a number of. capillary segments, which perform the function of roots, and at the same time bear the non-sexual propagating organs. The fructification is of a more complicated structure than in other classes of Vascular Cryptogams. In Salvinia it springs from the lower teeth of the submerged leaves; in Azolla from the pendent section of the deeply bipartite leaf, or rather of one particular leaf; in Pilularia it stands beside and beneath the leaves ; in Marsilea (L.) on the under side of the petiole, or of the base of the leaf itself. The Rhizo- carpeze are always moneecious, the two kinds of sporange being produced on Fic. 8.—Salvinia natans L. Young the same individual, and usually in plant still attached to the prothal- ee aa lium Jv, and megaspore sf, 4, scuti- close proximity. The structure and form leafs 7 and {fire andsrcond =~ degree of complexity of the fructifi- be eee en whorl. cation differ in the different genera. The sporanges are always associated together in groups. Each of these groups, known.as a sorus or sporocarp, is a closed capsule-like chamber, which is of epidermal or trichomic origin, its wall or zzdusium, often considerably hardened, being an extension of the epiderm. Each sporocarp is regarded by Celakovsky as the homologue of the integumented ovule of Flowering Plants. In the Salviniaceze the sporocarp is unilocular; in the Marsileacez it is plurilocular, and the wall indurated into a hard shell. Each sporocarp may contain sporanges of one kind only or of both kinds ; in the former case male and female sporocarps are often associated together in RHIZOCARPEZ 25 coups. The megasporanges are often considerably larger than the icrosporanges. In the early stages of their development no difference is exhibited stween the megasporanges and microsporanges. In both cases the vorange originates in a papilla placed on the placenta, which divides ‘st into an upper and a lower cell, the latter developing, by repeated ansverse septation, into the pedicel, the former into the body of the orange, and dividing ultimately into a large central tetrahedral “chespore, surrounded by a layer which almost immediately breaks up to two layers of /apetal cells or mantle-layers. The archespore further vides into sixteen spore-mother-cells, and each of these into four vecial spore-cells arranged tetrahedrally. A difference is now mani- sted according as the sporange is to develop into a mega- or a micro- orange. In the latter case each of the sixty-four cells develops into microspore, while the tapetal cells become disorganised, and changed to the frothy mucilage which subsequently hardens and encloses the vores. In the former case only one of the sixty-four cells develops to a megaspore, growing rapidly at the expense of the others, and {imately filling up the cavity of the sporange. The remaining sixty- iree spore-cells, as well as the tapetal cells, become disorganised, and zliquesce into a frothy mucilage which envelops the ripe megaspore, {imately hardening into the egispore, which splits to allow the emergence ‘the prothallium. In Azolla the mucilage of the microsporanges forms 1e peculiar #assule which will be described later. A more detailed description requires the division of the Rhizocarpeze ito the two orders Salviniacee (Salvinia and Azolla) and Marsileacee Marsilea~and Pilularia), which are, perhaps, not in reality very nearly lated to one another. ORDER 1I,—SALVINIACEA. The female prothallium of Salvinia is formed within the apical papilla “the megaspore. The protoplasm in this papilla appears to separate from iat of the rest of the spore, and then: breaks up by free-cell-formation to several portions, which remain for a time unclothed with cellulose ; ibsequently they secrete cell-walls, and form a tissue, which breaks ‘rough the cell-wall of the papilla, and forces its way through the epi- yore, which splits into a three-lobed body. The prothallium, when it rst emerges from the epispore, has a somewhat triangular form, with an evated ridge along its median line, and two wing-like appendages, ibsequently forced apart by the growth of the embryo, which hangs own on each side of the spore. It contains a considerable amount of 26 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS chlorophyll, but never loses its connection with the megaspore, even after the commencement of the germination of the sporophyte. The first archegone makes its appearance on the elevated dorsal ridge of the prothallium, and subsequently two others are formed, one on each side of the first. If one of these is fertilised no more archegones are pro- duced, and the prothallium ceases growing. But if no impregnation has taken place the prothallium continues to grow, and produces from one to three additional rows, each consisting of from three to seven archegones. In Azolla the prothallium has the form of a slightly convex disc, consisting, in its central part, of several layers of cells, at the margin of only one. A single archegone is first formed, near the centre of the prothallium. If this Fic. 9.—Salvinia natans. Longitudinal section through megaspore and prothallium. a, wall of sporange; 4, epispore, formed of hardened mucilage; c, coat of spore; @, diaphragm separating prothallium from spore-cavity ; 37, Fic. 10.—Archegone of Salvinia natans prothallium ; 7, neck of archegone ; /, //, in three stages. a, 3, c, divisions in the first two leaves of embryo ; s, scutiform leaf neck-cells ; ¢, neck-canal-cell ; e, oosphere ; or cotyledon, (After Pringsheim, x 70.) 4, neck-cells, (After Pringsheim, x x50.) is fertilised, no others are formed ; if not, it is followed by a few others. The avchegone of Salvinia is a nearly globular cavity, its venter being completely buried in the tissue of the prothallium. The central cell is at first somewhat elliptical, its axis lying obliquely to the surface of the prothallium. Its apex is at first covered by four cells belonging to the epiderm, arranged in the form of a cross. Each of these four nech-cells divides by transverse septa into a row of three cells, the four rows thus forming a short neck. The large central cell now elongates upwards ‘and forces its way between the lowermost four cells of the neck, and its RHIZOCARPE 27 ical point becomes cut off by a septum, forming the xechk-canal-cell. ow this a second very small portion of the central cell is again cut off form the ventral canal-cell, so that the canal now consists of two s. These two cells become transformed into mucilage, which escapes forcing apart the four apical or stigmatic cells, leaving an open canal the meantime the protoplasm of the large basal portion of the central has become transformed by contraction into the vosphere. The aegone is now ready for impregnation, the antherozoids reaching the phere through a funnel-shaped depression in the epispore and the ncanal. After fertilisation the canal again closes up by the expan- 1 of the stigmatic cells. The hegone of Azolla resembles that jalvinia in all essential points. The male prothallium of Salvinia educed to a mere rudiment. The ‘rospores lie imbedded in a mass ardened, granular, frothy mucilage, ned by the disorganisation of the atal cells. They do not escape n this mucilage, but the endospore 2ach develops into a tubular fila- at which pierces through the muci- > and the wall of the sporange. 2 extremity of this filament which jects outside the sporange is ved, and becomes cut off by a Fic. 11.—Salvinia natans. A, micro- tum. The lower and larger of the sporange, with microspore-tubes s/. , (x 100.) 8B, microspore-tube (x 200) cells thus formed is regarded as with closed, C with empty antherid. : : 4 D, antherozoids ( x 600) (After dimentary prothallium ; the termi- Pringsheim.) 7 cell, which again divides into two, a rudimentary antherid. The protoplasm of each of the two 1eridial cells divides into four, and each of these eight massés of coplasm escapes as an antherozoid. Each antherozoid is a corkscrew- coil of protoplasm, bearing vibratile cilia of great length at its ider extremity. To the same extremity is attached a vesicle, com- 2d of a portion of the protoplasm of the antheridial cells which not used up in the formation of the antherozoids, and which does leave the antherozoid during the period of its ‘swarming.’ The development of the multicellular embryo from the fertilised yerm has been very carefully followed out in Salvinia. The first nentation is by a nearly vertical wall (at right angles to the surface .e-prothallium) into two somewhat unequal portions, each .of which 28 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS again divides by a’septum nearly at right angles to the first one. Further divisions then take place. Out of the posterior of the first two segments (the one immediately beneath the mouth of the archegone) is formed the foot of the young plant, by which it is attached to and derives its nutriment from the prothallium. From the anterior of these two seg- ments is derived a peculiar foliar structure, differing from all the subse- quent leaves, the cotyledon or scutiform leaf, by the growth of which the terminal bud of the stem becomes directed downwards. No root what- ever is produced. Azolla is stated to have a second cotyledon. Both stem and root (in Azolla) are developed from a single apical cell, which is rounded in front and pointed below. The primary meristem-layers are differentiated, as in Flowering Plants, into plerome, periblem, and dermatogen. The mature sporophyte differs considerably in appearance in the two genera, but always floats on the surface of the water. The very short stem is erect or horizontal, and the branching of both stem and root (in Azolla) ismonopodial. The root, stem, and leaf-stalk are each traversed by a single concentric ‘ vascular’ bundle of simple structure, containing spiral and annular tracheides. The leaves of Azolla are very crowded, and are placed in two rows on the dorsal side of the stem ; but insome species they have the appearance of standing in four rows. They are of delicate membranous texture, and are always deeply bifid, one lobe being submerged and the other floating. The floating lobe of each leaf has a remarkable cavity, covered by a double epidermal layer, with the excep- tion of a narrow orifice which opens into the cavity. This cavity is formed during the growth of the leaf by a more rapid growth of the epiderm than of the subjacent tissue, and is itself clothed with.an epi- dermal layer. The cavities are frequently occupied by well-developed colonies of Nostoc-filaments. Salvinia is remarkably heterophyllous (see figs. 7, 8). The first leaf of the young plant is the scetiform or peltate leaf already mentioned, which is produced near the base of the stem. It is coriaceous in texture and sagittate in form. Next are pro- duced, also singly, two ovate aézial leaves. All the subsequent leaves are arranged in whorls of three, two of which are aérial, with flat, ovate, or orbicular lamina, floating on the surface of the water ; while the third or submerged leaf at once branches into long slender filiform segments, which hang down into the water and perform the function of roots. The leaves of adjacent whorls are placed alternately, so that the mature plant has two rows of ventral submerged, and four rows of dorsal aérial leaves. Each leaf has a single definite apical cell in Salvinia, but not in Azolla, The leaves of both genera are furnished with stomates, which, according to Strasburger, differ considerably, both in structure and RHIZOCARPEZ .. 29 sarance, from those of Flowering Plants. Those of Salvinia are re- kably small, and are inserted about halfway up the epidermal cells, th are eight or nine times their height. Air-pores occur also in the nerged leaves. The very simple roots of Azolla are of endogenous in. The root-cap originates from a single cell; in A. Caroliniana ld.) the cap is eventually thrown off, leaving the root-tip naked. The sporanges are enclosed in unilocular sporocarps, formed two ther or in Jarger numbers ; in Salvinia on the youngest teeth of the nerged leaves, in Azolla on the pendent submerged lobe of the dly bifid leaves, and only on the lowermost leaf of each shoot. The segment which is destined to become fertile first of all develops a columel or placenta, to which the sporanges are attached. An ular wall, the rudiment of the zz- um, then becomes elevated from base of the columel, eventually ‘tops its apex, closes up, and ; forms the wall of the sporocarp. sporocarp of Salviniaceze is efore a metamorphosed portion leaf, and corresponds to a sorus he Hymenophyllacez (Filices), . the difference that in the latter envelope remains open in the 1 of a cup, while in the former it es completely over the sorus, n Cyathea (Filices). The in- um is much more strongly sloped than that of ferns, and Fic. 12.—Fertile shoot of Azolla filiculoides ipletely envelops the sorus ; it io ee sists of two layers of cells, the s of which are, in Azolla, strongly lignified in the upper part. Each ‘ocarp contains one kind of sporange only ; but both kinds always ir on the same individual, and may even spring from the same amorphosed leaf. In Salvinia the megasporanges are considerably er than the microsporanges, and the number of the latter in a sporo- ) is greater (see fig. 7). In Azolla the number of microsporanges in orocarp is about forty, while the female sporocarps contain only a le megasporange, and consequently only a single megaspore, en- ped first in the wall of the sporange, and then in the greatly hardened isium. The microsporanges are nearly globular capsules, with long der pedicels, the wall consisting, when mature, of a single layer of ;. The megasporanges are pear-shaped, with much shorter and 30 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS stouter pedicels, and arise from the apex of the columel. In the forma- tion of the pedicels of the megasporanges longitudinal cell-division takes place, as well as transverse. The mode of formation of the spores within each kind of sporange has already been described in general terms, after the preliminary separation of a single external layer of cells which develops into the wall of the sporange. The sixty-four micro- spores appear to be disposed without any arrangement in the cavity of the microsporange. A large nucleus lies at the end of the megaspore which is nearest the apex of the sporauge. Before fertilisation both kinds of sporange become detached from their pedicels, and are carried Fic. 13.—Massula of Azodla Caroliniana Willd. (x240). (After Strasburger.) up to the surface of the water in the spring by the surrounding masses of Alge. The epispore then splits above the apex of the megaspore into three lobes, between which the emerald-green prothallium forces itself, and impregnation is effected. In Azolla the epispore assumes a still more striking form. In the microsporanges it has the appearance of a large-celled tissue, and breaks up into two or more spherical masses called massule, each of which envelops a number of microspores, and has a distinct coat. In some species, but not in all, the surface of these masses is covered with hair-like appendages, barbed at the apex, the glochids, by means of which, after emerging from the sporange, and when floating on the surface of the water, they attach themselves to the RHIZOCARPEA |” 31 oating megaspores. The roundish megaspore, which does not nearly ll up the sporange, is completely covered by a very thick warty layer f hardened ‘frothy mucilage, its epispore, which projects far above the dex, and separates, in its upper part, into either three or nine large ear-shaped masses of the same substance, terminating in a tuft of fine ireads. These bodies constitute a floating apparatus for the megaspore, 1e fine threads floating on the surface of the water, and suspending eneath them the /loat-corpuscles, either three in number or more umerous, containing abundance of air-cavities, and the megaspores, to hich the microspores are attached by their glochidiate processes. The two genera of Salviniaceze, Salvinia and Azolla, each incluce ut a small number of species, all annual plants, widely distributed over 1e globe, especially in its warmer regions. Those of Azolla form green r red floating patches of considerable size, with the habit of a Junger- iannia. No economical application is known of either genus. ORDER 2.—MARSILEACEA. The female prothallium attains here a much smaller degree of evelopment than in the Salviniaceze. It arises within the apical papilla f the megaspore, the protoplasm of which breaks up into several cells, ‘hich remain for a time unclothed with cellulose, and only subsequently onstitute a tissue containing a small quantity of chlorophyll. Even fter this the prothallium still remains for some time completely enclosed ‘thin the apical papilla of the megaspore, being covered by the epi- ermal layers of the apex of the spore itself, and shut off from the pore-cavity within and below by a diaphragm which is attached to the iternal coat of the spore. By the further growth of the prothallium ie epidermal layers of the apical papilla are broken through, and the orsal ridge of the prothallium projects into the fvzmel formed by the bsence at this spot of the thick outer layers of the epispore. The iaphragm subsequently arches convexly, and the prothallium is pushed irther outwards, but still lies as a hemispherical mass in the funnel- haped opening. In those species which have hitherto been examined each prothallium roduces only a single archegone. Even before the prothallium breaks arough the megaspore, the large central cell may be recognised in it, overed only by four cells arranged in a cross, whfch form at the same me the apex of the prothallium. From these are developed the more r less projecting neck and the stigmatic cells of the archegone. As in alviniaceze, a neck-canal-cell is separated from the central cell, which ushes up between the neck-cells, as well as a smaller ventral canal-cell ; 32 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS the lower and larger portion of the protoplasmic cell-contents contract- ing into an oosphere. If the archegone remains unfertilised the prothal- lium continues to grow into a comparatively large chlorophyllous structure with rhizoids. The male prothallium and antherids are reduced to a still more Fic. 14.—Marsilea salvatrix L. Longi- tudinal section through megaspore, pro- My Fic. 15.—Marsilea salvatrix. A, prothallium eee oe rae ee store. . Pt, projecting from ruptured coat of mega- space beneath diaphragm ; #¢, prothal- aoe 5 eevee of mucilage forming funnel, liam; wh, its rhizoids; a, archegone ; wit! 3 aot erozoids. B, vertical section of : J, foot; w, root of embryo; 4, coty- a allium 2; 9, oosphere; a, stigmatic ledon; sZ, mucilaginous ‘envelope of cells. (After Goebel, greatly magnified.) megaspore. (After Goebel, x 6a) rudimentary condition than in the Salviniacerz. The contents of the microspore divide into three cells, one of which (the prothallium) remains sterile, the other two constituting the antherid. The contents of each of these two cells again divide into sixteen antherozoid-mother- cells. From the nucleus of each of these is formed an antherozoid ; . RHIZOCARPEZ : 33 ‘se bodies are therefore developed entirely within the microspore, ile the microspores themselves are set free completely from the wange. As in the Salviniaceze, the whole of the contents of the ther-cell is not used up in the formation of the antherozoid ; a por- a remains behind in the form of a roundish turbid lump consisting of ittoplasm and starch-grains, which gradually becomes clearer, and iches itself, in the form of a vesicle, to the antherozoid, which in ularia becomes soon detached, but in Marsilea remains attached to -antherozoid during the greater portion of the period of ‘swarming.’ ven the antherozoids are mature the exospore of the microspore ‘sts at its apex, and the endospore swells up into a hyaline bladder, iL SSS Fic. 17.—Marsilea salvatrix. Micro- spore discharging antherozoids. ex, Fic. 16.--Pilularia globulifera L. Longitudinal exospore ; d/, endospore ; zz, anthe- section of megaspore. a, coat of spore ; 4, c, rozoids; yy, their vesicles with starch d, the three layers of the epispore. (After Luers- grains. (After Goebel, X 350.) sen, magnified.) ch finally bursts to allow of the escape of the antherozoids with their icles. In Pilularia the antherozoid consists of only four or five coils 1 a few vibratile cilia; in Marsilea it is of considerable length, the pe of a corkscrew, and consists of twelve or thirteen coils, the vibra- cilia being also of great length. The antherozoids collect, in large nbers, in the funnel-shaped depression of the epispore of the mega- re above the prothallium (see fig. 15), and force themselves, through neck of the archegone, to its central cell. In its early stages the development of the oosperm or impregnated phere corresponds to that of Salviniacee. After becoming invested 1 a-.cell-wall of cellulose, the first segmentations give. rise to,.the D 34 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS parent-cells of the first root, of the young stem, of the first leaf or cotyledon, and of the foot by which the young embryo is attached to the prothallium. In Marsilea a second cotyledon is formed from the fourth octant of the lower half of the embryo. The layer of tissue surrounding the central cell becomes double after impregnation ; a few grains of chlorophyll are formed in it, and its outer cells develop into long rhizoids, which are especially luxuriant if no fertilisation has taken place. The sporophyte of the Marsileaceze differs very widely in external form in the two genera ; but its internal structure agrees in its essential features with that of the Salviniacee. The stem, root, and leaves all originate from a single apical cell, which always divides into three rows. The stem is procumbent on damp soil or at the bottom of stagnant water, and is traversed by a single central ‘ vascular’ cylinder filled with fundamental tissue, each bundle consisting of a central xylem with spiral or scalariform tracheides, surrounded by a phloem with large sieve-tubes and sieve-plates, and the whole enclosed in a brown sclerenchymatous bundle-sheath, composed of a single layer of cells with wavy lateral walls. A single ‘vascular’ bundle traverses each root and leaf-stalk ; in the lamina of the leaf of Marsilea this branches into a dichotomous venation. The fundamental tissue abounds, in’ both genera, in large schizogenous intercellular cavities, as is usually the case with water- plants. Those of Marsilea form a complete intercommunicating system. In those of Pilularia are remarkable spiral hairs. The leaves develop basifugally, as in Salviniaceze ; they are formed in two alternating rows on the dorsal side of the stem ; but, as in Salviniaceze, it is not every segment of the stem that produces a leaf. In this respect the Rhizo- carpes agree with Filices, and differ from Equisetaceee and Muscinee. The leaves are circinate in vernation, resembling in this respect true ferns only. Tannin-sacs occur in the petiole. In Marsilea (see fig. 6) all the leaves except the first, which is filiform and destitute of a lamina, have a very long slender petiole and a four-lobed lamina ; they are larger when growing in water than on dry land. M. quadrifolia (L.) has stomates on both surfaces of the aérial, on the upper surface only of the floating leaves. The stomates are depressed in the tissue of the leaf by the growth of the adjoining epidermal cells over the guard-cells. The mesophyll of the aérial leaves is characterised by the presence of rows of sclerenchymatous cells. In Pilularia the petiole is elongated and quill- like, and entirely destitute of a lamina (fig. 5). The sforocarp or conceptacle of the Marsileacee is an even more complicated structure than that of the Salviniacez. In Pilularia it is a roundish, shortly-stalked capsule springing from the axil of a leaf-stalk _ RHIZOCARPEA.. .: 35 the procumbent stem. According to Juranyi, each sporocarp is the ult of the coalescence of two segments of bifid leaves. The wall of sporocarp is very thick and hard, and consists of several layers of s forming a sclerenchymatous tissue. It is divided by vertical walls. 1 compartments, varying from two to four in the different species. +h compartment has, at least in its young state, an opening at the x, and is therefore not of endogenous origin, but rather a depression he surface. In each compartment there is, on the side which forms outside wall, a cushion-like s/acenza, formed from superficial cells, resting on a ‘vascular’ bundle. To this placenta are attached a aber of stalked sporanges of both kinds, constituting a sorus ; the sasporanges are chiefly below, the microsporanges above. > remainder of each compart- it is occupied by a delicate i-walled parenchyme. When ure the sporocarp splits from apex downwards into as many res as it has compartments ; each sporange dehisces by expansion of the gelatinous is resulting from the dissolu- i of the tapetal cells. The sporocarps of Marsilea capsules with somewhat the pe of a bean, a longer or rter pedicel, and a very hard ; nedchymabeis gall. “They Me er eaten otrito ng, usually in clusters, from eae eee nae paren- petiole of an ordinary leaf. : pedicel runs along the dorsal edge of the sporocarp, and gives iateral veins right and left which branch dichotomously and run to ventral edge. The ripe sporocarp has a bilaterally symmetrical cture, and is divided by transverse walls into two rows of compart- its, each of which has, when young, a narrow opening on the ventral .. Each compartment contains a single sorus, consisting of a few sasporanges in the centre, with a larger number of microsporanges on aside. As in Pilularia, a large portion of the cavity of each compart- it is occupied by a succulent parenchyme. The development of the sporanges commences, in both genera, with swelling up of some of-the epidermal cells of the part which mately becomes the placenta. These cells divide several times D2 36 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS obliquely—not horizontally, as in Salviniacese—into three rows of seg- ments, until ultimately a convex septum cuts off a triangular apical cell, which at length becomes the tetrahedral archespore. From this is separated the mantle-layer of ¢afetal cells ; further divisions take place both in these and in the rows of cells of which the wall of the sporange is composed, and the archespore divides by successive bipartitions into sixteen spore-mother-cells, each of which produces four spores in the ordinary way. The pedicel of the sporange consists at first of three rows of cells, the number being subsequently increased by further longitudinal divisions. The tapetal cells become gradually disorganised, and form a granular mucilage, filling up the interstices between the mother-cells of the spores, which is subsequently employed in the production of the epispore or gelatinous envelope of the spore. The differentiation of the two kinds of spore now commences. In the microsporanges all the sixty-four microspores reach maturity, each special mother-cell or rudi- mentary spore becoming invested, while still within the mother-cell, with its permanent cell-wall, while the walls of the sixteen mother-cells dis- appear. In the megasporanges, on the other hand, one of the four special mother-cells in each of the sixteen tetrads displays at first a greater vigour of growth than the other three. Of these sixteen sister- cells fifteen gradually become abortive, only one reaching maturity and developing into a perfect megaspore. During their development and disappearance all the rudimentary spores are furnished with spiny pro- tuberances, by which they are attached to one another. As the mega- spore increases in size its coat becomes hard and brown ; and it is ulti- mately invested by a gelatinous efrspore consisting of three distinct layers (fig. 16). The innermost of these is a mucilaginous coat, which is often folded, and ultimately forms a papilla above the apex of the mature spore. Outside this is a thicker layer of a soft prismatic sub- stance, and external again to this a third still thicker but less clearly organised envelope. The two outer layers are wanting at the apex of the spore, where there is a funnel-shaped depression exposing the papilla belonging to the innermost layer of the epispore. Down this fvmmel the antherozoids pass to impregnate the oosphere within the archegone pro- duced on the prothallium within the apical papilla of the megaspore. The processes by which both kinds of spore escape from the very hard shell of the sporocarp are very remarkable. In Pilularia globu- lifera (L.), the ripe sporocarp lies above or beneath the surface of the damp soil. It splits from its apex downwards into four valves, and exudes a tough hyaline mucilage derived from the parenchymatous tissue within each compartment. This mucilage accumulates on the ground ; and into it both kinds of spore escape after the rupture of the : RHIZOCARPE EE 7 fy yoranges. Fertilisation takes place within the drop of mucilage, which ien gradually disappears, and the impregnated megaspore lies on the amp ground, to which it becomes attached by the rhizoids put out om the prothallium until the first root of the embryo penetrates into ie soil. In Marsilea the processes are somewhat similar. The exces- vely hard, almost stony, shell of 1e sporocarp gives way slightly at s ventral edge as it lies in water, ad the water penetrates into the iterior. This causes the suc- alent parenchymatous tissue in ach compartment to swell up, ad splits the shell along the whole f the ventral edge into two valves. etween these valves the contents re gradually forced out; the com- artments stil] remain closed, each aclosing a sorus, and are attached 1 two rows to the cartilaginous ushion or sorophore which ran long the ventral edge of the spo- xearp, and which now becomes etached at one end, and ex- osed in the form of a string 1any times longer than the sporo- arp itself ; by the absorption of ater it has increased enormously 1 size, to something like 200 mes its original dimensions, and ie sori are thus placed at a con- derable distance from one an- Fic. 19.—Sporocarp of Marsilea salvatrix. A, 5 transverse section. 8, swollen and _ bursting, ther. Ultimately the walls of showing sorophore (x2). C, sporocarp (natural 1e sori or original compartments —Sttathed’" Dr bedon of sorus (xO)? aaa inde: f the sporocarp disappear ; the 0" if, misonporanges; mas, megaspo. alls of the sporanges burst, both inds of spore escape, and fertilisation is effected on the damp soil. All the species of both genera of Marsileaceze are marsh or aquatic erennial plants, mostly natives of the warmer temperate and tropical ountries. The number of species of Pilularia is small, of Marsilea bout forty. The leaves of Marsilea, when growing-in the air, display a ensitiveness to light, folding up in the evening and expanding in the 1orning, similar to those of many Leguminosz and other Flowering 38 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS Plants. The sporocarps of M. Drummondii (Br.), and probably of some other species, are eaten by the natives of Australia under the name of nardoo, LITERATURE. Bischoff—Die Rhizocarpeen und Lycopodiaceen, Nuremberg, 1828. Mettenius— Beitr. zur Kenntniss der Rhizocarpeen, 1846; Linnza, 1847, p. 260; and Beitr. zur Botanik, Heft 1, 1853; Plante Tinneane. Meyen—Nov. Art. Acad. Czsar-Leopold., vol. xviii., pt. I, p. 253. Hofmeister—Ueb. Keimung der Salvinia, Abhandl. Sachs. Gesell. Wiss. 1857, p. 665. Pringsheim—(Salvinia) Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot., vol. iii., 1863, p. 484. Hanstein—Ueb. eine neuhollandische Marsilia, Monber. Berl. Akad., 1862, p. 183 ; Befruchtung u. Entwickelung der Marsilia, Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot., vol. iv., 1865, p. 107 ; Pilularize generatio cum Marsilia comparata, Bonn, 1866. Braun—(Marsilia and Pilularia) Monber. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1870, p. 653, and 1872, p. 668. Russow— Vergleich. Unters., Petersburg, 1872; and Hist. u. Entwick. d. Sporen- frucht v. Marsilia, Dorpat, 1877. Strasburger— Ueber Azolla, Jena, 1873. Juranyi—Ueb. d. Entwick. d. Sporangien u. Sporen vy. Salvinia, Berlin, 1873; and (Pilularia) Sitzber. Ungar. Akad. Wiss., 1879 (see Bot. Centralbl., vol. i., 1881, p- 207). Berggren—(Azolla) Rev. Sc. Nat., 1881, p. 21. Heinricher— (Spores of Salvinia) Sitzber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, vol. Ixxxv., 1882, p. 494. Goebel—(Pilularia) Bot, Zeit., 1882, p. 771. Class II.—Selaginellacee. This class is composed of two genera only, Selaginella (Spring) and Tsoétes (I.), resembling one another in the general facts of their life- history, but differing widely in external appearance, and each consti- tuting a monotypic order. We have, again, as in Rhizocarpez, two kinds of spore; the megasporanges and microsporanges are of very similar appearance, and are produced in connection with the leaves. The female prothallium, produced within the megaspore, is a more completely endogenous structure than in any other class of Cryptogams, and is altogether destitute of chlorophyll. From the occurrence in both genera of a foliar structure kncwn as the “gule, the term ‘ Ligulatee’ is sometimes giyen to the class ; but the character is unsatisfactory; and it will be best to treat the two orders Selaginellee and Lsvétee sepa- rately. SELAGINELLACEE ** 39 ORDER 1I.—SELAGINELLEA. In the genus Selaginella, the sole representative of the order, the prothallium appears to be already completely formed by the time the megaspore is mature, but occupies only the apical portion of the cavity. of the spore; the basal portion is still filled by an undifferentiated mucilagi- nous protoplasm, which subsequently develops into a cellular tissue, the second- ary prothallium, or, as it is termed by some writers, the endosperm. In some species, at least, this struc- ture is separated by a dia- phragm from the true pro- thallium. The prothallium always produces a number of archegones, sometimes as many as thirty, which arise in centrifugal succes- sion on the exposed portion of the prothallium, the one formed first being at the apex. The archegone ori- ginates by division of a superficial cell in a direction parallel to the surface ; the outer of these two then divides into four cells, and each of these again breaks up by tangential division into two. These form the neck of the archegone, which therefore consists of four rows, each composed of two cells. The lower of Fic. 20.—A—F, stages in the division of the microspore of Selaginella caulescens Spr, v, sterile cell ; G, antherozoid (x 1400); H, vertical section of megaspore of S. Mar- tensii Spr, ; A, prothallium with three archegones ; ed, en- dosperm ; e, exospore (x 165), (After Pfeffer.) the two original cells becomes the venzer of the archegone, and puts out a slender prolongation between the neck-cells, which is separated as the neck-canal-cell. Another yery small portion is subsequently separated 40 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS as the ventral canal-cell, and the protoplasm of the larger and lower portion rounds itself off into the oosphere. The two canal-cells then deliquesce into mucilage, leaving an open passage for the entrance of the antherozoids. Pe ; The microspores, spherical orange or bright red bodies, remain in a dormant condition through the winter, and undergo further develop- ment in the spring. The contents then divide, first of all by a trans- verse wall of cellulose near one end-into two-cells of very unequal size: The smaller one of these does not divide further, and remains sterile } it is regarded as the last degraded vestige of a male prothallium. The contents of the larger of the two cells, which may be regarded as an antherid, then break up into from four.to eight primordial cells, and each of these divides again into four mother-cells of antherozoids ; but it is uncertain whether all the cells are fertile. The antherozoids are coiled up into a helix, and are furnished at-the anterior end with two long fine cilia. The antherozoid is in all cases derived from the nucleus of the mother-cell’; a central vacuole, invested with a delicate membrane; often remains attached to its posterior end during ‘swarming.’ The ‘swarming ’ condition continues for about half to three-quarters of an hour. Fic, 21.—Farmation of embryo and suspensor in S, Martensii, showing order of formation i. of dividing walls. “(After Pfeffer.) - ? : . In the formation of the embryo the first division of the .oosperm differs from that in Rhizocarpee and in Filices in. taking place at right angles to the axis of the archegone. It is thus divided into two super- posed halves, from the lower of which is developed the eméryo itself ; from the upper half a structure almost-peculiar to. this. order, consisting SELAGINELLACEE it of a small number of large cells, known as the susfensor, or pro-embryo, from its apparent homology with the structure which goes by this name in Flowering Plants. By the elongation of the suspensor and the compression and absorption of the adjacent cells,.the lower portion of the oosperm is forced into the endosperm, from which it appears to derive nutriment, dividing, both previously and subsequently, into a small-celled tissue. This tissue undergoes a large amount of differentia- tion before the embryo emerges from the megaspore, the rudiments of -all the principal parts of the sporophyte making their appearance at this early stage. The mother-cell of the embryo divides into two by an obhque wall. From one of the two cells thus formed originate the stem and one of the cotyledons, from the other the foot and the other coty- ledon. The rudimentary stem has a two-edged apical cell, from which segments are cut off alternately right and left. An inner mass of tissue soon becomes differentiated as the procambium of the axial ‘ vascular’ bundle, the peripheral tissue as dermatogen and periblem. The stem- bud, or A/wmule, with its first leaves (subsequent to the cotyledons), finally grows erect from the apex of the megaspore as the embryo increases in length, ‘The formation of the first zoot begins later between the foot and the suspensor ; its apical cell is fofmed from an inner cell of the older segment ; the first layer of its root-cap originates from the splitting into two layers of the overlying dermatogen ; the later layers of the root-cap are formed from the apical cell of the root. The sporophyte differs greatly in appearance in the two orders. In Selaginella the stem is always slender, erect or procumbent, with distinct internodes, and lengthening rapidly by monopodial branching, which very often has a dichotomous appearance from the vigorous growth of the lateral branches. These lateral branches, with their ramifications, frequently develop in a single plane, giving the system the appearance of a compoundly pinnate-leaf; all the branches and leaves displaying a distinctly dorsiventral character. ' The stem has an epiderm composed of elongated ‘ prosenchymatous cells, without stomates, but containing a considerable amount of chlorophyll in re- markably large grains. The fundamental tissue consists of elongated thin-walled cells with oblique septa, fitting closely together without intercellular spaces, and endowed with the power of long-continued growth both in length and diameter. In the absence of small inter- cellular spaces the stem of Selaginella resembles that of mosses ; but, on the other hard, each- ‘vascular’ bundle is surrounded by a large air-cavity, traversed by trabecules, rows of cells. connecting the bundle with the surrounding fundamental tissue. The entire cortex has a tendency to become dark brown with age from partial sclerosis. When 42 VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS the cells of which these trabecules are composed are round, they form a loose spongy parenchyme surrounding the bundle, and sharply differ- entiated from the firm compact fundamental tissue. The stem has one or more cauline ‘vascular’ bundles, which may be traced in the EQ Q