Reprinted July, 1904.- 



Entered at Post Office, Brooklyn, N. Y., as Second Class Mail Matter. 



THE BRYOLOGIST. 



Vol. IV. J.VNUAKY, 1901. No. i. 



Readers of The Bkyoi.ogist will be interested to know that in this, its 

 first year of independent existence, it has just paid for itself. This may seem 

 a poor showing to those not acquainted with such matters, but we can assure 

 our readers that it is a better financial showing than many more pretentious 

 scientific journals can make. Encouraged by the cordial reception given the 

 Bryologist during the past year, the Editors have decided to add four 

 pages to each issue and illustrate more freely, nearly doubling the cost of 

 the journal. 



* * 



* 



In order to fill the additional space with material, we earnestly solicit 

 from our readers more short notes on interesting finds. The notes on Bu.v- 

 baumia in this number will illustrate what is meant. 



VEQETATIVE REPRODUCTION OF MOSSES. 



By G. N. Best. 



The asexual or vegetative reproduction of mosses, by which we mean 

 the multiplication of these plants by other means than by sexually formed 

 spores, is accomplished in two general ways, either by parts of the plants 

 normally considered, or by adventitious formations which appear on the 

 normal plant for this purpose. 



More than fifty years ago Schimper* made the broad assertion that 

 " every leaf and every portion of a leaf detached from the mother plant and 

 placed under favorable conditions can produce proembryonic filaments," and 

 more recently Limprichtf has stated that "all parts of a moss plant have 

 the capacity to produce secondary protonema." It remained, however, for 

 Healdl to demonstrate experimentally that if a moss leaf was detached from 

 its stem and placed under favorable conditions for growth, it would produce 

 rhizoids from its its lower surface and protonema from its upper, and that 

 in time buds would appear on the latter, and that these would ultimately 

 grow into the vegetative plant. But it is to Correns|| more than to anyone 

 else that we are indebted for a comprehensive treatise on this subject. 



It is of interest to note that the outer cells of the stems and branches of 

 a moss plAnt, as well as the leaf cells, are analogous in function to sexually 

 formed spores, in that they have the capacity to produce rhizoids and pro- 

 tonema, and thus reproduce the parent plant. While it is exceptional for 

 vegetative buds to appear'on the rhizoids, they sometimes so occur. It is 

 not uncommon, however, for rhizoids to produce secondary protonemata and 

 for buds to appear on these as on primary protonemata. 



*Recherches .A.nat. et .Morph. sur les ilousses, 19, 1848. 

 +Die Laubmoose, l:6i, iS^jo. 

 JBot. Gaz., 26:i6g, 1808. 

 llVermehrung der Laubmoose, 1899. 



