Minnesota Plant Life. 149 



which no central column exists. Mosses of this family have 

 not yet been found in Minnesota, although they possibly ex- 

 ist. The rest of the mosses belong to a division sometimes 

 called the true mosses, to distinguish them from the peat- 

 and from the granite-mosses. There is no particular occa- 

 sion for the use of the term "true" since all alike belong to 

 the general moss division of the plant kingdom. There are 

 more than 30 families of "true" mosses not all of them rep- 

 resented in the state and of "true" moss species there are prob- 

 ably from four to five hundred in Minnesota. The simplest 

 true mosses are very small and the first-stage of the sexual plant 

 is more conspicuous than the second, for the latter nearly always 

 occurs as almost microscopic buds, each consisting of a short 

 stem, three or four tiny leaves and a little group of spermaries 

 or egg-organs at the tip. In these mosses the capsule has no 

 lid and opens irregularly. Only a very few varieties with such 

 capsules are known to exist in Minnesota and the great majority 

 of mosses have capsules which open by lids and may be known 

 as lid-mosses. It is impossible here to mention, even briefly, 

 examples of all the different families of lid-mosses to be found 

 within the limits of the state. In some kinds the plant-body is 

 erect and the egg-organs are produced terminally upon the 

 axis. In others the plant-body is not so commonly erect and 

 the egg-organs are produced near the tips of the branches. 

 In general the lid-mosses are divided into two principal se- 

 ries; those which bear their capsular plants at the tips of the 

 stems, and those which carry them on the sides. Sometimes 

 it requires a close examination of the moss to determine to 

 which of the two series it belongs. A view of the whole tuft 

 might lead one to suppose that the capsular-plants were ter- 

 minal on the branches, but if a single plant were isolated from its 

 neighbors and closely examined it might be discovered, per- 

 haps, that the capsular plant was developed laterally. 



White mosses, bark-mosses and dung-mosses. Among the 

 many mosses which develop their capsular plants at the ends 

 of the axes may be mentioned the white mosses grayish green 

 varieties that produce in the northern forest regions tufts the 

 size of one's head. In these plants the leaves have very much 

 the same structure as peat-moss leaves, hence the grayish green 

 color of the tufts. Related to such varieties are many of the 



