FUNARIA 299 



parenchyma is interpolated, and this in its turn is connected with the 

 columella by a bunch of trabecular These three structures, namely 

 the parenchymatous core of the apophysis, the central mass of spongy 

 parenchyma, and the bunch of trabeculae, presumably co-operate in 

 transporting the synthetic materials manufactured in the palisade-tissue. 

 The archesporium thus receives food-materials from two sides, namely 

 first, from the capsule wall through the outer spore-sac, and, secondly, 

 from the apophysis, through the inner spore-sac. 



The photosynthetic system of the Funaria sporogonium is a highly 

 efficient one, as may indeed be inferred from the large amount of 

 chlorophyll with which it is provided. The chlorophyll-content of a 



Fig. 124. 

 L.S. through an unripe sporogonium of Funaria hygromctrica. For explanation see text. 



fully grown, but still green, capsule is equal to that of about fourteen 

 foliage leaves, or, since a shoot of Funaria bears on an average from 

 seven to ten leaves, to that of one and a half entire shoots. The author 

 has further obtained experimental proof of the efficiency of the sporo- 

 gonial photosynthetic tissue, by removing unripe capsules from the parent 

 plants and thereafter cultivating them in purely inorganic nutrient 

 solutions. In one experiment of this kind, ten sporogonia, in which the 

 spore mother cells were just being differentiated, were cut off and grown 

 in a culture solution for three weeks ; at the end of this period, they were 

 ripe and had produced a crop of perfectly normal spores, their dry weight 

 meanwhile having increased by 150 per cent. Many Mosses besides 

 Funaria are furnished with an equally active sporogonial photosynthetic 

 system ; in all such cases, the capsule is independent of the shoot on 

 which it is borne, so far as the supply of plastic materials is concerned. 

 Among Algae it is as might have been expected only the more 

 highly differentiated Phaeophyceae and Ehodophyceae that develop a 

 special photosynthetic system. Where such a system occurs, it always 

 occupies a peripheral position, and, in fact, actually extends to the 



