18 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH MOSSES. 



of the nerve, which ultimately splits longitudinally. The con- 

 tents of this are probably reproductive, and I shall have to 

 speak of other appendages of the nerve when I come to the 

 consideration of the different modes of multiplication other 

 than from the true fruit. 



I have now described the vegetative part of the plant, and 

 proceed to state what is known of the fruit, which is of two 

 kinds, male or female. 



e. Now, as regards the mgjeorgans, whether collected in 

 flower-like disks (perigonia), as in Polytrichum, in little buds, 

 as Hypnum (Plate 6, fig. 3), in heads with the tips of the 

 leaves reflected, as in Splachnum (Plate 15, fig. 4), in disks 

 bordered with large leaves, as in Mnium (Plate 17, fig. 2), 

 or in catkin-like appendages, as in Sphagnum, or associated 

 more immediately with the female organs, whether mixed 

 with them as in Bryum, or placed beneath them as in Webera, 

 the structure is essentially the same. The antheridiuni 

 consists of an oblong sac, sessile or substipitate, filled with 

 cellular tissue, each ultimate cell of which at length gives 

 birth to a spermatozoid with a straight or curved thread-like 

 body, surmounted by two long, extremely delicate, flagelliform, 

 motile threads, by means of which it can move about rapidly 

 in fluid. The antheridia are usually accompanied by thread- 

 like paraphyses, always more or less distinctly articulated 

 (Plate 1, fig. 3). In S^ha^num the antheridia are axillary, 

 and resemble in their delicate stem and globose form those of 

 Jungermannia. In some cases they are developed in especial 

 buds springing from the radicular fibres. Their number 

 varies extremely ; while in some Mosses they are indefinite, 

 in others they seldom exceed some fixed number. 



The paraphyses which separate the antheridia from each 

 other, and which, like the other parts of fructification, present 



