IIG 



MANUAL OF BOTANY 



Fig. 875. 



to develop. There is no special perielisetium produced as in the 



liverworts. 



Among the sexual organs are developed hairs of peculiar 



form known as jjciraphyses. These are multicellular, and often 



terminate in a globular head. 

 They are singular in that their 

 cells often contain chloroplastids. 

 The antheridia differ but little 

 from those of the Hepaticae ; they 

 are club-shaped or rounded bodies, 

 momited on short stalks, and con- 

 sist of a wall surrounding a cavity 

 in which are the antherozoids. 

 They open in the mosses hy split- 

 ting across the apex. The mother 

 cells of the antherozoids escape 

 before emitting the antherozoids. 

 They are attached to each other 

 by a sort of intercellular mucilage 

 derived from the cell- walls. This, 

 however, dissolves as soon as it 

 comes into contact with water. 



The archegonia have the same 

 general structure as those in the 

 preceding group {fig. 875). There 

 is a bod}" or venter, and a long 

 generally twisted neck. The body 

 or venter is usually thicker than in 

 the liverworts, and consists of two 

 layers of cells. It contains, as in 

 other cases, an oosphere, while the 

 neck is filled with mucilage derived 

 from the disintegration of its canal- 

 cells and of the ventral canal-cell 

 cut of!' in the formation of the 



Fig. 875. A. Apex of slioot of Funaria ■■ 



with two archegonia. B. Is'eck of OOSpuere. 



archegonium showing mode of The vegetative reproduction of 



separation of the cells, c. Immature , 



archegonium. After Sachs. the gametophyte IS verj^ varied. 



The chief feature of it is the ease 



with which almost any part of the plant oan produce 



protonemal filaments, even root hairs doing so if exposed 



to light in a moist atmosphere. Similar outgrowths may 



spring from the rhizoids, or from the leaves, or from 



