Forcible Discharge of the Antherozoids in Asterella Californica* 
By GEORGE J. PEIRCE 
In January, 1901, I had a considerable number of male plants 
of Asterella Californica * on a plate under a bell-glass in the labo- 
ratory. The laboratory was moderately warm, the air fairly dry ; 
the soil under the bell-glass was damp, the air moist. On fe 
moving the bell-glass to examine the plants more closely, I was 
presently surprised to see slight puffs of what looked like smoke 
coming froin the sods. I scrutinized the material thinking there 
must be a puff-ball in it, but could see none. On the contrary, 
the little puffs of smoke came from different places over the plate 
and, on looking carefully, 1 thought they must come from the 
groups of antheridia. I held a glass slide over the plate, caught 
a puff or two on it, and examined it under the microscope. What 
I saw were great numbers of the antherozoids of this liverwort 
sticking to what had been the lower.surface of the slide. I tried 
this again several times with the same result—the antherozoids were 
forcibly projected above the surface of the plant. The slides 
were held from five to ten centimeters above the plants, but I made 
no exact measurements at that time, for I was not sure that what 
I had seen was not a wholly unusual phenomenon, possible only 
under the unnatural conditions prevailing in the laboratory. The | 
plants had been in the laboratory for some time—two weeks, po | 
sibly longer—on a table six feet from the window. They were aver 
age plants when I brought them in, but they had not developed 
the laboratory so fast as plants which I had left undisturbed out of 
doors. It was impossible for me to test the plants out of ate: : 
for they were already too old to discharge any more antheroz0id® a] 
so I was obliged to stop work on the matter for this reason. : 
From Professor D. H. Campbell, of this university, a” 
M. A. Howe, of Columbia University, I learned that what I had 
seen was new, not hitherto recorded in the literature with which 
they are familiar and which is quite unknown to me, and I detet 
OE 
— _—— 
d Dr. 
s 
* This plant has also been known as Fimbriaria Californica. 
374 
