]20 MUSCINEM. 



flowers, while the habit of the male flowers is altogether difl"erent. In the former 

 the archegonia and antheridia occur either close to one another at the smnmit of 

 the stem in the centre of the envelope {PerichcEtium), either in two groups, or 

 separated by peculiar enveloping leaves, and the antheridia stand in the axils of 

 these arranged in a spiral, surrounding the central group of archegonia. The 

 form of the perianth is, in the female and bisexual flowers, that of an elongated 

 almost closed bud, formed by several turns of the leaf-spiral. Its leaves are similar 

 to the foliage-leaves, and become smaller towards the interior, but grow all the 

 more vigorously after fertilisation. The male perianth {Perigonium) consists of 



Fig. 232.— Longitudinal section 01 the summit 01 a verj- small male plant oi Futiarm hy,srroniefrica ; a a young, h a 

 nearly ripe antheridium ; c paraphyses ; d leaves cut thrrugh the mid-nb ; e leaves cut through the lamina (X300). 



broader firmer leaves, and is of three different forms ; usually it is bud-shaped, and 

 resembles that of the female flower, but is shorter and thicker, its leaves often 

 coloured red, and decreasing in size towards the outside ; flowers of this type are 

 always lateral. Those shaped like capitula are, on the contrary, ahvays terminal 

 on a stouter shoot and globular, their leaves are broad, sheathing at the base, 

 thinner and recurved at the upper part ; they become smaller towards the interior, 

 and leave the centre of the flower, with the antheridia, free ; these flowers are some- 

 times borne on a naked pedicel, a prolongation of the stem (Splachnum, Tayloria). 

 Finally, the discoid male perigonia consist of perianth-leaves which are very difl'erent 



