324 



ANTHERIDIA OF MOSSES. 



PART II. 



When a male bud is developed, the antheridia are 

 found to be globular, ovoid, or elongated hyaline bodies, 

 A set in a cluster of hairs 



and paraphyses, or ste- 

 rile cellular filaments. 

 Fig. 48 represents the 

 antheridia of Polytri- 

 chum commune, with the 

 paraphyses and hairs, 

 from the microscopic ob- 

 servations of Dr. Carpen- 

 ter. The central anthe- 

 ridium is discharging its 

 spermatozoids ; the one 

 on the right is empty, 

 that on the left imma- 

 ture. 



The antheridia are 

 filled with a mass of 

 mucilage containing a 

 multitude of cells, in 

 each of which there is 

 a spiral filament furnished with cilia, as in fig. 49. 

 As soon as the filaments are mature, the cells open ; the 

 mobile filaments, or spermatozoids, are free, and come 

 out through a pore in the antheridia, in multitudes 

 like pollen out of an anther. 



While the antheridia are in process of formation, the 

 female buds expand and exhibit flask-shaped archegonia, 

 similar to that in fig. 45, seated in a rosette of leaves. 

 When this archegonium is fertilized by the sperma- 

 tozoids, its internal germ cell is developed by cell di- 

 vision into a conical body elevated upon a stalk; and 

 this at length tears across the walls of the flask-shaped 

 archegonium by a circular fissure, carrying the higher 

 part upwards as a calyptra or hood (fig. 47 c) upon its 



Fig. 47. A, plant of Funaria hygrometrica : 

 /, leaves ; u, urns or capsules ; s, seta or 

 foot-stalk ; o, operculum ; c, calyptra. B, spo- 

 rangia of Encalvpta vulgaris : , urns ; o, 

 opercula ; c, calyptra ; p, peristome ; s, seta. 



