62 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. ["jo^ir^nal^an"!?!?™"' 



development, gi'owtli, mode of reproduction, and tlie several parts 

 of mosses were described and illustrated by enlarged drawings and 

 microscopic preparations, the most notable among the latter being 

 Ephemerum serratum, showing vaginicola and pro-thallus ; Ortliotriclmm 

 Lyellii, exhibiting gemmse on leaves ; and Leucoboyum vulgare, showing 

 section of leaf. It was also pointed out that to the microscopist the 

 mosses opened out fields of research and questions to be settled un- 

 sui-jiassed by any other branch of natural history. 



Prior to reading the paper Mr. Smith handed in a complete 

 Bryological Flora of the county of Sussex, comprising 298 species 

 and sub-species, a brief account of the soils in which the rarer species 

 grow, together with an enumeration of those which at present, as re- 

 gards Britain, have been found only in Sussex. This list will be 

 published in the Society's next annual report. 



Dec. 9th. The President, Mr. T. H. Hennah, in the chair. — A 

 paper was read by Mr. C P. Smith " On the Gemmas of Mosses." In 

 flowering plants the seed is an embryo plant provided with a stem, root, 

 and leaves, which only require developing to produce a perfect plant. 

 In mosses, the spore is but a simple cell, without any germ or embryo 

 of the future plant, which gives rise to an intermediate state, so that 

 mosses are plants of two, or rather alternating, generations ; in the 

 first the spore gives rise to the pro-thallus, and the first generation 

 is completed, when the different sexual organs are formed, by the co- 

 operation of which the primary mother-cell of the second generation is 

 produced ; this afterwards becomes the fruit-rudiment and eventually 

 the caj)sule, thus completing the second generation. In addition to this 

 mode of generation, there is another by means of gemmae or sjjrouts. 

 In all known British, none of the side-fruiting (Pleurocarpi) as yet 

 are known to show gemmae, which are defined as loose granular bodies, 

 capable of becoming plants. The situation in different mosses varies ; 

 thus in Tortilla impillus, which grows on trees in Sussex and else- 

 where, and has a thick spongy nerve, the gemmfe are found on the 

 upper part of the inside of the leaf ; the fruit of this moss is unknown 

 except in Australia ; in Didymodon gemmasceiis, having the nerve 

 excurrent, the tip is crowded with gemmre ; Tetraphis pellucida has 

 them in pedicellate clusters at the ends of separate stems ; in Webera 

 annotina they assume the form of beds in the axils of barren branches ; 

 JBryum Atropurpureum has tubercles or bulbs in the axils of leaves. 

 On the leaves of OrtJiotriche LycUii grow little strings of cells, which 

 being thought to be of confervoid nature, were named Conferva cas- 

 tanea. It has since been demonstrated that these confervfe gradually 

 develop into yoimg plants of mosses. Oncopliorus glaucus has a great 

 number of cells, forming a dense mass at the tip of the leaf; these, in 

 the damp season, give rise to numbers of yomig plants ; hence this 

 plant is common in countries where it does not produce a true fruit. 

 The subject of the growth of gemmae has not been thoroughly inves- 

 tigated ; he purposed investigating the phenomena, when he hoped to 

 lay before the Society some new facts. After a discussion, a number 

 of very interesting specimens prepared by Mr. Smith was exhibited 



