306 



PLANT STUDIES 



of the capsule like a loose cap or hood (Fig. 276, c), 

 which sooner or later falls off. As stated before, the 



mature structure 

 developed from 

 the oospore or egg is 

 called a sporogoni- 

 um, a form of sporo- 

 phyte peculiar to the 

 Bryophytes. 



201. The sporogoni- 

 um. — In its fullest de- 

 velopment the sporogo- 

 nium is differentiated 

 into the three regions, 

 foot, seta, and capsule 

 (Fig. 276) ; but in some 

 forms the seta may be 

 lacking, and in others 

 the foot also, the sporo- 

 gonium in this last 

 case being only the 

 capsule or spore case, 

 which, after all, is the 

 essential part of any 

 sporogonium. 



At first the capsule 

 is solid, and its cells 

 are all alike. Later a 

 group of cells within 

 begins to differ in ap- 

 pearance from those 

 about them, being set 

 apart for the produc- 

 tion of spores. This 

 initial group of spore-producing cells is called the arcJie- 

 sporium, a word meaning " the beginning of spores." 



Fig. 279. Sporogonium of Funaria : A, an em- 

 bryo sporogonium (/,/'), developing within 

 the venter (b, b) of an archegonium ; B, C, 

 tips of leafy shoots bearing young sporo- 

 gonia, pushing up calyptra (c) and archego- 

 nium neck (h). and the foot becoming im- 

 bedded in the apex of the gametophore. — 

 After GoEBEL, 



