74 



REPRODUCTION 





^•^^ 









top of this leafy stalk there is sometimes a thick 

 cluster of leaves. At the tip of the stem, in the 

 tissues surrounded by these leaves, the moss plant 

 develops two kinds of structures not found 

 elsewhere on the plant. One of 

 these is like a minute flask with 

 a very long narrow neck. I'his 

 is really a kind of ovary or fe- 

 male organ, and it is called an 

 archegonium. In the bottom of 

 the flask is a large, plump cell, 

 which is the egg. The other 

 kind of organ that develops at 

 the top of the stem is club- 

 shaped, being attached to the 

 end of the stem by its stalk. 

 This is a male organ and is 

 called an antheridium. When the 

 antheridium is mature it bursts, 

 and from it escapes a great num- 

 ber of minute, ciliated, free-mov- 

 ing cells. These are sperms. 

 The bursting of the antheridium 

 occurs when the end of the stem 

 is moist, as when a drop of dew 

 or rain is among the leaves. 

 Through this moisture the 

 sperms swim about until they 

 come near a fluid secretion pro- 

 duced by the archegonium. 

 They are attracted by this secre- 

 tion. Some of them swim down the neck of the 

 flask, and one of them unites with the eggs at the 

 bottom, thus fertilizing it. 



Fisure 19. Antheridium 

 of moss discharging sperms; 

 much magnified. From 

 Coulter's Plant Life and 

 Plant Uses. 



In the moss we have one kind of parent plant 

 with two kinds of sex organs which produce two 



