MUSCI AND HEPATIC A K 



47? 



disposal and protection of the sexual organs, suggest that the Liver- 

 worts are making the best of subaerial life, to which their simple 

 structure is not in itself well suited. Their fertilisation is by means 

 of spermatozoids motile through water. 



The sporogonium itself is on a simpler scale than that of the Mosses. 

 Excepting the peculiar group of the Anthoceroteae, it is not structur- 



Fig. 371. 



A, Ripe capsule of Aneura pinguis in longitudinal section. From the summit an 

 elaterophcre hangs into the spore-cavity, in which are many spores and detached 

 elaters. Magnified. (After Goebel.) 



B, Capsule of Pellia calycina, burst, and emptied, showing the valves of the wall 

 recurved, and an elaterophore rising from the base, bearing many threads. (After 

 Goebel.) 



ally specialised for carrying on photosynthesis, nor is there any 

 complete columella. Moreover the ripe sporogonium is longer enclosed 

 in the archegonial wall ; but it bursts it at maturity, when the seta 

 elongates, bearing outwards the spherical head. There is no oper- 

 culum, but the relatively thin wall bursts, usually into four vah 

 and the spores, interspersed among fibrous elaters that help to distri- 

 bute them, are exposed as a flocculent mass to the breeze, and are 

 scattered in the dry state. Though the details are different from those 

 of the Mosses, the end is the same (Fig. 371). 



