LECTURE XVIII. 



Funaria hygrometrica is a very common moss often: found on 

 rocks and walls, and especially in sandy situations. It grows 

 in patches, large numbers together forming a close sod. The 

 separate plants in these colonies are about 2 cm. high : each has 

 a wiry vertical stem beset closely with small ovate-pointed leaves. 

 The stem is brown, the young leaves round the top of the stem 

 are green, those lower down are brownish. Rhizoids which are 



FIG. 26. Funaria hygrometrica. p, a piece of protonema with bud (b), x 80. 

 On right is shown a leafy gametophyte with sporophyte attached, x 2. 

 a, apophysis ; c, calyptra ; o, operculum ; s, seta; t, theca. (Partly 

 after Sachs.) 



thread-like and of a brown colour are attached to the lower part 

 of the stem and fix it in the soil. 



Many of the plants support at the tip of their leafy stem a 

 slender, wiry and twisted stalk, bent at the top. To it is attached 

 a pear-shaped body the sporangium. At first the sporangium is 

 green, later it becomes yellow and then brown. In its early stages 

 it is usually more or less completely covered with a membranous 



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