MOSSES 61 



this fringe in the particular family to which this 

 moss belongs. 



It is hardly necessary to say that inside the 

 capsule the spores themselves are formed. I do 

 not propose to attempt to deal here with the 

 manner in which they are developed, as such a 

 task is clearly outside the scope of a small volume 

 such as this. Those of my readers who may wish 

 to go more deeply into the mysteries of what goes 

 on in the interior of the capsule, will do well 

 to consult Mr. J. E. Bagnall's " Handbook of 

 Mosses," while they will find the subject dealt 

 with in still greater detail in such a work as 

 Hoffnieister's treatise on the Higher Cryptogamia. 

 Suffice it for our present purpose to say, that in 

 due time the spores are formed and ripen, and 

 are then ready to be sown. Here Nature is her 

 own sower, and very careful she is that the 

 sowing shall be carried out to the greatest possible 

 advantage in the interest of the plant. In many 

 mosses there will be found round the mouth of 

 the capsule, just under the lid, a ring of very 

 special cells, which are larger in size than, and 

 of a different form from, the cells of which the 

 capsule wall is built up. These special cells 

 constitute what is known as the ring, or annulus. 

 Plate VI. fig. 1 is a drawing on a large scale 

 of one of these rings, taken from the capsule 

 of that common little moss, the Purple Pork- 

 moss (Ceratodon purpureus), which, as already 



