TWENTY-SEVEXTU ANNUAL MEETING. 159 



duced either on the leaves or stem. Aulaeomnivim andro^ynum and Tetraphis 

 pellucida bear gemmaj upon the top of prolonged leafless branches, in a delicate 

 cup formed by a few modified leaves. ( See plate XXXVI.) There are no plants 

 so well supplied with purely vegetative means of reproduction as the mosses; 

 some never bear fruit ; hence these provisions of nature to insure i-eproduction. 



There is no doubt of the existence of sexual organs in mosses. The two or- 

 gans of reproduction are now well understood. 



Just as in Phanerogams the flowers of mosses occur in three forms. The male 

 and female organs may occur in the same flowers, then it is synoecious ; or the 

 two organs may be in separate flowers on the same plant, when it is termed 

 monoecious ; bvit if on different plants it is dioecious. Of the synoecious mosses, 

 Mnium cuspidatum and some Brya are examples ; of the monoeciovis sjjecies, 

 Atrichum, Polytrichum, and some Hypna, are good examples : while of the 

 dioecious mosses, such common species as Funaria hygrometrica, some Brya and 

 Hypna are examples. The most remarkable example of dioecious moss is found 

 in Fissidens gi-andifrons ; the male plant only being found in Europe, and the 

 female plants only found in America ; consequently it is always sterile. Some- 

 times the male flowers are on smaller, shorter lived plants, as Funaria hygro- 

 metrica or Dicranum undulatum, etc. ( See plate XIV.) 



In the species that are synoecious, all the plants look much like the female 

 plants, but the male plants are usvaally quite different in appearance from either 

 the female or synoecious plants. 



When the plants are synoecious, both organs are in the same receptacle or 

 perichaetium together, or they are separated by special leaves of the perichaetium, 

 arranged in a spiral in the axis of the leaves surrounding the archegonia which 

 are in the center. The female flower usually appears as a long almost closed 

 bud ; while the male flower is shorter and more blunt. 



The male flowers are borne either terminally or laterally. When terminal the 

 antheridia or male organs are surrounded by leaves variously modified and col- 

 ored, termed the perigonium. The leaves of the male flower are usually shorter 

 and more blunt than those of the female flower. In some species the lower peri- 

 gonial leaves form a cup-like rece^jtacle, colored red or orange ; inclosing the inner 

 leaves and antheridia, as in Polytrichum, Atrichum, and Pogonatum. (See plate 

 XXII.) Sometimes they are bud-like or gemmiform, and the outer leaves colored 

 red or green. These are always lateral ; growing out of the axils of the leaves, as 

 in Hypnum and Cylindrothecium ; while in some species they have no perigonium 

 but the leaf from whose axis they grow : and still others grow on a naked stalk, 

 or prolonged stem, as in Tayloria and Splachnum. The perigonium consists of 

 very small modified leaves, which grow smaller and more delicate, as they near 

 the center, and vary in number in different species. 



In both male and female flowers, many small filiform bodies, called paraph- 

 yees, grow up and help to protect the delicate antheridia and archegonia. In 

 male flowers sometimes the paraphyses are club shaped, but they are always 

 filiform in the female flower. (See plates XIV & XX.) The antheridium is a 

 club-shaped or globose body covered by an outside layer, one cell in thickness, 

 inclosing many free cells within. This outer membrane is chlorophyllose and 

 green until the antheridium ripens ; when it changes to a red, brown, or yellow- 

 ish color. It opens at the apex and bursts the membrane, as in Sphagnum. 

 (See in Goeble's, p. 175, and in Sach's Botany, p. 371.) The spermatozoids are 

 analagous to pollen, hence the name antheridium for the organ containing them. 

 The spermatozoids are also club-shaped bodies, spirally twisted, the pointed 

 anterior end being furnished with two long delicate cilia, which serve as motile 



