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SOME COMMON MOSSES 



207 



When the spores fall upon moist warm earth each sprouts and 

 sends out a tiny green thread much as the pollen grain when 

 germinating sends out a pollen tube. Indeed botanists tell us 

 that the pollen grain is but a modified spore. These green threads 

 from the spore branch again and again until they form a thin 



green network {" protonema'') over 

 the surface of the soil. From this 

 protonema spring tiny buds which 

 develop into the plants of the next 

 ^yl^^i "^^ season. 



JH^^Hb ^mm^' Go into a greenhouse and you will 



see the soil on beds and pots covered 

 with this green felt of protonema. 

 Some algae produce a similar green 

 felt in greenhouses but on the true 

 protonema little moss plants can 

 usually be seen if one looks closely. 

 These greenhouse mosses are more 

 likely to be of some other moss than 

 Physcomitrium but the method 

 of development is the same. 

 Spores, however, are not necessary 

 here for every bit of protonema 

 broken off in moving the soil is 

 capable of developing like a spore. 

 In searching for the Urn Moss 

 you may come upon young plants 

 of the "Cord Moss" Funaria 

 hygrometrica (L.) Sibth., looking like 

 the very young plants in the photo- 

 graph, a slender lance from a clus- 

 ter of tiny leaves at the base. 

 Funaria grows in situations such as Physcomitrium affects, 

 but it specially favors ash piles, rubbish heaps, and spots which 

 have recently been burned over. About a month after Physcomi- 

 trium is mature look for Funaria. Note how the calyptra is 

 tilted to one side by the unequal growth of the capsule as it ncars 

 maturity. 



Funaria is called the "Cord Moss" because its seta when dry 

 is twisted like a rope. If one of these dried plants be put in hot 



1, Physcomitrium turbinatum X 1 ; 



2, Funaria hygrometrica Xi , rather 

 small for the species; 3, capsule of 

 F. hygrometrica X 9; 4, capsules 

 of Funaria flavicans X 4. 



