observed however the indication of the canal of the archegonial neck above the young capsule.
Analogy with Anthoceros confirmed him in his views on the reproduction of ferns. Here he spent much labour in considering the view, originally due to Hedwig, that the ramenta were male organs by the effect of which the sporangia developed. Griffith saw that if this was so, since the sporangia are initiated very early, the only time to search for the male organs was in the very young stage of the leaf. On examining such young leaves he found the terminal cells of the young ramenta very prominent and formed the working hypothesis that they were the male organs. But he stated this cautiously and was well aware how imperfect his means of observation were.
The whole line of work brings vividly before us how cryptogamic the Cryptogams were at this period.
Without attempting to survey Griffith's views on the various groups of Vascular Cryptogams, a word must be said of those on Salvinia and Azolla, on which he published a long paper in addition to the other descriptions and figures in the Notulae. His observations bear on the development of the sorus and sporangium, but he dismissed the microsporangia as abortive or imperfectly developed structures. (I may note in passing that the study of their development led him to regard the microsporangia of Isoetes in the same way.) He dwelt on the similarity of the sporangium and indusium of Azolla to a gymnospermus ovule, and regarded the filaments of Anabena seen penetrating within the indusium as probably the fertilising bodies in this naked-seeded cryptogam.
Thus with a large amount of fresh and original observation Griffith was on wrong lines in his general views and comparison—he classed the higher Cryptogams in his Notulae as
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Pistilligerous. |
Musci.Hepaticae.
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Gymnospermous. |
Azolla.Salvinia.Chara.
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Cryptogamous. |
Ferns.Lycopods.Isoetes.Marsilidae.Anthocerotidae.Equisetidae.
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Griffith's general views of the reproduction of all the Vascular Cryptogams was necessarily wrong, since the prime clue of the recognition of the prothallus and plant as distinct had not been
