37^^ 



MUSCINEjE. 



latter then put forth protonemal filaments, which produce first of all a flat mem- 

 branous protonema; and upon this finally new leaf-buds arise (Figs. 251, 252). 



Finally the deciduous branch-buds of Bryum annotinum may also be considered 

 as organs of reproduction ; as also, according to Schimper, may the branches of 

 Conomitrium julianum and Ciiididotus aqualicus, which likewise have the power of 

 detaching themselves. 



The Sexual Organs of Mosses usually occur in considerable numbers at the 

 end of a leafy axis \ surrounded by enveloping leaves often of peculiar shape, 

 and mixed with paraphyses, and the whole group of organs may, for the sake of 



FIG. 253.— Longitudinal section of the summit of a very small male plant of Funaria hygrometrica ; a a young, * a nearly 

 ripe antheridium ; c paraphyses ; d leaves cut through the mid-rib ; e leaves cut through the lamina (X 300). 



brevity, be called a ' Receptacle.' The receptacle of Mosses either terminates the 

 growth of a primary axis (Acrocarpous Mosses), or the axis is indeterminate, and 

 the receptacle is placed at the end of an axis of the second or third order (Pleuro- 

 carpous Mosses). Within a receptacle either both antheridia and archegonia are 

 produced (bisexual receptacles), or it contains only one kind of sexual organ, and 

 the receptacles may then be either monoecious or dicecious. Sometimes the male 

 receptacles appear on smaller plants with a shorter duration of life (as Funaria hygro- 

 metrica, Dicranum undulatum, &c.). In external appearance the bisexual are similar 



^ The male branches of Sphagnum form an exception {vide infra). 



