Minnesota Plant Life. 



149 



which no central column exists. Mosses of this family have 

 not yet been found in Minnesota, although they possibly ex- 

 ist. The rest of the mosses belong to a division sometimes 

 called the true mosses, to distinguish them from the peat- 

 and from the granite-mosses. There is no particular occa- 

 sion for the use of the term "true" since all alike belong to 

 the general moss division of the plant kingdom. There are 

 more than 30 families of "true" mosses — not all of them rep- 

 resented in the state — and of "true" moss species there are prob- 

 ably from four to five hundred in Minnesota. The simplest 

 true mosses are very small and the first-stage of the sexual plant 

 is more conspicuous than the second, for the latter nearly always 

 occurs as almost microscopic buds, each consisting of a short 

 stem, three or four tiny leaves and a little group of spermaries 

 or egg-organs at the tip. In these mosses the capsule has no 

 lid and opens irregularly. Only a very few varieties with such 

 capsules are known to exist in Minnesota and the great majority 

 of mosses have capsules which open by lids and may be known 

 as lid-mosses. It is impossible here to mention, even briefly, 

 examples of all the different families of lid-mosses to be found 

 within the limits of the state. In some kinds the plant-body is 

 erect and the egg-organs are produced terminally upon the 

 axis. In others the plant-body is not so commonly erect and 

 the egg-organs are produced near the tips of the branches. 

 In general the lid-mosses are divided into two principal se- 

 ries; those which bear their capsular plants at the tips of the 

 stems, and those which carry them on the sides. Sometimes 

 it requires a close examination of the moss to determine to 

 which of the two series it belongs. A view of the whole tuft 

 might lead one to suppose that the capsular-plants were ter- 

 minal on the branches, but if a single plant were isolated from its 

 neighbors and closely examined it might be discovered, per- 

 haps, that the capsular plant was developed laterally. 



White mosses, bark-mosses and dung-mosses. Among the 

 many mosses which develop their capsular plants at the ends 

 of the axes may be mentioned the white mosses — grayish green 

 varieties that produce in the northern forest regions tufts the 

 size of one's head. In these plants the leaves have very much 

 the same structure as peat-moss leaves, hence the grayish green 

 color of the tufts. Related to such varieties are manv of the 



