146 THE FLOWERING PLANT. 
be found bearing stalked capsules which are popularly known 
as the moss “fruit.” If such a plant (fig. 61, 4) be separated 
from its fellows, it will be found to consist of a slender stem 
bearing a number of thin, pointed, bright-green leaves. From 
the lower end of the stem a quantity of brown branching fibres 
arise (rhizoids) which help to mat the plants together and attach 
them to the wall. The “fruit,” or to speak more correctly 
spore-capsule, is not an actual continuation of the leaf-bearing 
portion, as one would naturally think, but is simply ¢mbedded 
in it by means of the lower end of the slender brown seta or 
capsule-stalk. We have here, in fact, the two distinct stages 
a> 
ep-—-F- 
Pp h HH 
RYE 
Hoy 
S: tek 
SEF. 
eer 
Pon 
Gir 
Se 
Ree 
Sa 
~ a ~'s R 
é a 
ZF = VR, BS R 
2 & —— \ RS SN 
= S sangha \ RO 
oN SORE XS Y 
= Zea SS REN < x 
d = Pes RAS) 
SO 
te 
<i 
~~ 
Fig. 61.—A Moss (Funaria). A. two plants bearing spore-capsules (x 3); J. leaves ; 
rh. rhizoids; s. seta; c. capsule; op. operculum; ca. calyptra. 8B. longitudinal 
section of young capsule (x 24) [after Prantl]; op. operculum; p. peristome; s. 
spore-bearing layer. 
or generations which together make up the life-cycle of the 
moss-plant. The stalked capsule is the spore-bearing generation 
(sporophyte) permanently fixed in and dependent upon the leafy 
portion, which is the egg-cell-bearing generation (odphyte). It 
will be best to consider the two stages separately. 
SPOROPHYTE. 
The seta swells at its upper end into a somewhat pear-shaped 
spore-capsule in which the spores are produced. Upon the upper 
end of the capsule there is a little membranous cap known as 
