56 EASY LESSONS IN VEGETABLE BIOLOGY. 



The steins of mosses usually terminate in filaments, 

 each supporting an urn-shaped vessel closed by a lid. 

 The urn is covered by a cap, or hood. Under the lid 

 the edge of the urn has a toothed fringe, and within 

 the urn, or spore-capsule, are double-coated spores. 

 (Fig. 25.) 



Fig. 25. 



In producing new plants, the outer coat of the 

 spore bursts and the inner wall protrudes. New cells 

 grow from the extremity, forming a filament, whose 

 cells at certain points multiply by subdivision, so as 

 to form rounded clusters, from each of which an in- 

 dependent plant may arise. 



The minuteness of the spores of mosses and similar 

 plants accounts for their general distribution, even in 



