38 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
The male branches are generally conspicuous and easily re- 
cognized, the leaves being yellow, bright red, or especially dark 
een. 
The antheridia stand on the mature shoot by the side of the 
leaves ; they are never terminal, and are found only in the middle 
part of the male branch, one standing beside each leaf. The 
archegonia arise at the apex of the female branch, exactly like 
those of the rest of the Mosses ; but the development of the sporo- 
gonium is marked by the elongation of the summit of the stem 
into a long, naked receptacle, which elevates the capsule contained 
in the calyptra high above the perichzetium. 
This so-called pseudopodium must not, therefore, be con- 
founded with the seta of other Mosses. 
The spore mother-cells are formed from a cap-shaped layer of 
cells beneath the apex of the spherical theca, the inner tissue be- 
neath it forming a low hemispherical column not reaching to the 
apex. The spores are regularly formed, but there occur in addition 
smaller spores, termed sporogonia. 
The capsule opens by the detachment as a lid of the upper 
segment, and the calyptra is ruptured irregularly. 
The second natural group is the Andrezeacez, small czespitose 
Mosses, very leafy and much branched. 
The elevation of the shortly-stalked theca on a leafless pseudo- 
podium and the formation of the spores and central tissue is the 
same as in the Sphagnacez, but the capsule opens by four hori- 
zontal slits at the side, and not by an operculum or lid ; thus four 
valves are formed, united at the apex and at the base, which are 
closed in damp but open in dry weather. 
The third natural group is the Phascaceze, Earth Mosses, they 
are very small plants, whose short stems remain attached to the 
protonema until the spores are ripe. 
The capsule in its internal differentiation agrees with that of the 
typical Mosses, being distinguished from them by not opening 
with a lid, but allowing the spores to escape only by its own decay. 
In the fourth natural group, the Bryacez, or True Mosses, the 
sporogonium is always stalked, and the seta is usually of consider- 
able length; the capsule always opens by a detachment of its 
upper part as a lid (operculum) ; the operculum is either simply 
and smoothly separated from the capsule, or a layer of epidermal 
cells by the swelling of their inner walls forms an annulus or ring, 
and in this manner separate the lid from the capsule. 
Most commonly after the lid has fallen off, the margin of the 
capsule is seen to be furnished with one or two: rows of elegant 
and regular teeth or cilia forming the peristome; but if the 
peristome is seen to be wanting, the capsule is said to be gym- 
nostomous. 
