10 BEITISH MOSSES. 



will be found that the full cycle of life may be indicated 

 in the following circular form : 



Sporogone. Protonema 



ogone. Protc 



Moss Plant. / 



Bud, 



so that, starting with a spore of one generation, and 

 travelling to our right hand, we return to another spore 

 which will give rise to a new circle of life. 



(1) The spore is a simple cell ; how produced we shall 

 hereafter see. It is, I say, a simple cell, and not like the 

 seed of a phanerogam, a highly complex organism. The 

 spores are often seen to be emitted in vast 



numbers from the cases in which they are M& 



produced, and sometimes are brightly 



J FIGK 4. Spore 



coloured red, green, or yellow. Fig. 4 of Funaria 

 represents (highly magnified) the spore of 

 a common Moss, the Punaria hygrometrica. 



(2) From the spore proceeds the protonema, a line 

 of cells, extending by transverse divisions, so that it 

 comes to consist of single cells joined end to end to one 

 another an organism indistinguishable from the hypha of 

 an Alga. At points this hypha throws off lateral branches, 

 which are always of less diameter than the principal ones. 

 There is thus produced a tangled mat of fibres, running on 

 or near the surface of the ground, and often coloured by 



