Introduction to cryptogamic botany / by M.J. Berkeley.

  • Berkeley, M. J. (Miles Joseph), 1803-1889.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introduction to cryptogamic botany / by M.J. Berkeley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/624
    some of the lower Cryptogams the impregnating bodies preserve aa animal type, and it is to be observed that direct proof of the function of these bodies has been elicited amongst Alga?, in the first instance by Thuret,* and afterwards by Pringsheimf and his followers. Where the flagelliform appendages charac- teristic of spermatozoids disappear, as in Lichens and Fungr, there is still molecular motion ; and if Leptomitus (or as it is sometimes called Saprolegnia, Achlya, &c.), as I believe to be the case, is a true Fungal, even amongst these we shall have the animalcular form. 7. A fourth distinction of equal importance with the last is the absence, in general, of everything, so far as the spores are concerned, in the shape of an embryo.]: In every case the spores consist of one or more cells composed of two or more membranes inclosing a grumous mass, or occasionally Fig 6. a Spoi-es of Coleosporium pingue, L6v. magnified, shewing several germinating points arranged symmetrically. b Ditto of Podisoma fusmim, magnified as observed by myself and Mr. Browne.§ * Thuret, Eecherclies sur la ffecondation des Fuoacees, suivies d'ob- servations sur les Anth&'idies des Algues. Ann. d. So. Nat., S6r. iv., vol. 2, p. 273. f Pringsheim in Monatsbericht der Kon. Preuss. Ak. zu Berlin, March, 1855, p. 133. X If, however, by an embryo is meant a young plant ready formed, and only waiting for the evolution of its parts, we cannot deny that the spores of many of the lower Algse and of such fungi as Antennaria liohinsonii, Mont., conta,in an embryo. In the latter case, however, the mode of reproduction is not apparently normal. § Gard. Chron., 1849, p. 261. Ann of Nat. Hist., Ser. 2, vol iii, p. 531. The woodcut of both these fungi was prepared before the appearance of Tulasne's second memoir on the Uredin6es.