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PLANT STUDIES 



198. The antheridium. — The male organ of the Bryophytes 

 is called an antheridium, just as among Thallophytes, but 

 it has a very different structure. In general among the 



Fig. 277. Sex organs of a common moss (Funaria): the group to the right represents 

 an antheridium (A) discharging from its apex a mass of sperm mother cells (a), a 

 single mother cell with its sperm (6), and a single sperm (c), showing body and 

 two cilia; the group to the left represents an archegonial cluster at summit of 

 stem (A), showing archegonia (a), and paraphyses and leaf sections (b), and also a 

 single archegonium (B), with venter (b) containing egg and ventral canal cell, and 

 neck (h) containing the disorganizing axial row (neck canal cells).— After Sachs. 



Thallophytes it is a single cell (mother cell), and may be 

 called a simple antheridium, but in the Bryophytes it is a 

 many-celled organ, and may be regarded as a compound 

 antheridium. It is usually a stalked, club-shaped, or oval to 



