72 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
the life history of a common moss plant, such as that 
which grows so commonly on walls, known at once by 
its long-stemmed red “fruit,” as it is called, though this 
“fruit” is really a separate moss plant of the second 
generation. We begin with a 
minute single-celled spore, 
which we may imagine falls 
upon suitable damp soil, and 
, begins to germinate. The first 
stage of its development is a 
branching system of thread- 
like tubes of cells, which form 
a close mat over the surface 
of the ground. At this stage 
the moss plant has just the 
appearance of one of the algze 
which branch in the same 
manner over ponds or, as one 
may see them better still, over 
any glass vessel containing still 
water, such as that of a model 
aquarium. It was some time 
before this form was recognised 
as a form of the moss at all, 
and it was considered another 
kind of plant life altogether ; 
but further observation brought to light the fact that, 
usually at the elbow of one of these branching threads, 
there appeared a leafy upward-growing bud. From this 
are developed branching stems, at the end of which, in 
due time, appear the organs of reproduction. Sometimes 
among the mosses both sexes are found side by side, but 
in the special example we are now studying, the shoots 
YOUNG MOSS PLANT. 
