164 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



Fungi; they form, indeed, a sort of link between the higher and lower 

 plants. When one of the microscopic spores ejected by an adult Moss- 

 plant has fallen into congenial soil, and begins to germinate, its innermost 

 coat (for it is double-coated) protrudes, and develops into thread-like branch- 

 ing filaments (the protonema), recalling the mycelia of Fungi, but dis- 

 tinguished from mycelia by containing chlorophyll in their cells (fig. 204). 

 From these filaments arise the leafy shoots of the new, but not yet perfect 

 Moss-plant, which is botanically known as an oophyte (i.e. egg-plant) ; and 



this, when fully de- 

 veloped, produces the 

 male and female organs 

 of the plant the anthe- 

 ridium and archegoniutn, 

 as they are called on 

 the successful discharge 

 of whose functions future 

 fructification depends. 

 In fact, the antheridium 

 is filled with myriads of 

 minute spiral bodies 

 (somewhat analogous to 

 the pollen of flowers), 

 which it ejects upon 

 the archegone, and so 

 brings about fertilization 

 (fig. 203). As a result 

 of this process, we get 

 the full-grown Moss- 

 plant, with its urns and 

 hoods (sporangia and 

 calyptrce), as shown in 

 drawing (fig. 206); 

 urns being full of 

 new spores the life- 

 germs of a future gener- 

 ation. 



Do not think that the simple Moss-plants are undeserving of your 

 notice. They will well reward the most reverent and painstaking study 

 indeed, few objects are so fraught with interest, whether to the microscopist 

 or the outdoor naturalist. We know the remark is often made, in tones of 

 careless disparagement : " They are only Mosses ! " But he who speaks 

 thus lightly has no true sense of the beautiful, and certainly can never have 

 taken the trouble to examine these delicate organisms. Ruskin's touching 

 tribute to their lowly ways and tender beauty, which forms one of the choicest 



Photo by] 



[E. Step. 



FIG. 201. COMMON MOREL (Morchella esculenta). 



rs in spring, usually on spots where the earth 

 pores are produced on the surface of the 



the 

 the 



/ epicures. It app 

 has been burnt by a gipsy fire. Th 



honeycombed head or pileus. 



