SECT. vn. GEMMAE. 327 



the pro-embryo of each spore is capable of transforming 

 one or more of the cells seated upon its various rami- 

 fications immediately into buds; which grow up into 

 leafy stems, as the Funaria hygrometrica, so that here 

 we have the peculiar condition of one spore giving rise 

 to the development of a number of plants. 4 In process 

 of growth each of these plants would produce antheridia 

 and archegonia, and, by the process described, a full- 

 grown Funaria hygrometrica with its urns and hoods, 

 as represented in fig. 47 A, would be the result. 



If the moss be annual or biennial it dies after bear- 

 ing fruit; if perennial, two or more successive crops 

 of archegonia are formed. The mode of fructification, 

 therefore, resembles that of flowering plants, with this 

 difference, that the fructification of the latter produces 

 a young plant from each embryonic cell, while in mosses 

 the fructification of one embryonic cell produces a spo- 

 rangium or urn containing spores, that is, a multitude 

 of reproductive bodies, which have no trace of cotyle- 

 dons or axis. 5 



Mosses are also propagated by gemmae or buds. They 

 are produced in many situations, sometimes on distinct 

 organs, sometimes on the tips of the leaves, or on rootlets 

 which grow on various parts of the plants, and which 

 in some of the mosses form a dense woolly or silky mass 

 of a bright yellow or brown colour "varying to purple. 

 On the fibres of this mass, green cells appear, which are 

 developed into reproductive buds. Almost every cell on 

 the surface of a moss is capable of forming, by continued 

 division, a cellular nodule, which falls off and gives 

 rise to a germ which grows into a new plant. These 

 nodules are generally situated at the extremity of the 

 leaves, or on the leaves themselves, while pro-embryo 

 fibres spring from the leaf cells of many mosses. M. 



4 M. von Mohl, on the ' Vegetable Cell.' 



5 Berkeley's ' Cryptogamic Botany.' 



