52 



the phloem of the higher plants and serves as a food- 

 conducting tissue, and a solid cylinder of cells with 

 thick walls, which corresponds to the tracheides of the 

 higher plants and carries water. In the cortex are 

 found leaf trace hundies with the same rudimentary 

 structure. 



The moss plants bear the sexual organs. 



SEXUAL REPRODUCTION. 



(OOPHYTE GENERATION.) 



Funaria is dioecious, i.e., one plant bears entirely 

 either male or female organs. Both sexes are never 

 produced on the same plant. 



1. Antheridia. These are the male organs, and 

 they appear in great numbers at the apex of the 

 stem, the surrounding leaves being specially modijS.ed 

 to protect them. The protective leaves are small, 

 closely packed, and are known as Periclioetial leaves. 



A mature antheridium is a long, club-shaped sac, 

 with a wall one cell in thickness which is green at 

 first and later on red or yellow. The antherozoid 

 mother cells fill up the sac. The cells near the top 

 of the sac become tui'gescent, and the outer wall 

 ruptures. The mother cells escape, but not before 

 each one has produced an antherozoid. An anther- 

 ozoid is a spiral nuclear body provided with two 

 cilia. On the addition of water to the mother cells 

 the antherozoids are liberated. 



Among the antheridia are green, unbranched 

 structures called Paraphyses. Each paraphysis is a 



