42 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



manual/ as their description here would extend to 

 too great a length. The mature fruit consists of an 

 elegant little capsule {Fig. 6), which opens at the 

 apex by an operculum, or lid (e). Between the edge 

 of the capsule and the lid there is usually a ring of 

 minute cells, which assist in casting off the lid when 

 the spores are mature. In most of the genera the 

 mouth is surrounded by a fringe of delicate teeth, 

 always some multiple of four, which is a most enter- 

 taining object under the microscope (d). In the 

 Andreacese the capsule does not open with a lid, but 

 splits into four valves. 



The spores are minute rounded bodies, produced 



Fig. 7. — Protonema of a moss. 



in considerable number within the capsules, readily 

 dispersed, when mature, by the falling away of the 

 lid, or operculum. When the spores germinate, which 

 they do from any portion of their surface, they produce 

 a green filamentous body called z. protonema (Fig. 7), 

 which is a kind of prothallus, often branched and 

 much elongated. In this condition it has a close 



' Consult especially a "Handbook of British Mosses," by J. E. 

 Bagnall, A.L.S. 



