Se ee ee ee 
3 
a 
1898 ] THE GERMINATION OF FERN AND MOSS SPORES 39 
formol into the interior of the capsules. Then, by operating in 
the chamber which had been saturated with steam, perfectly 
sterile cultures were obtained. 
The Petri dish cultures offered subsequent opportunities for 
the penetration of molds, even when extreme care was taken, so 
that cultures which had been kept sterile for several weeks 
would often be spoiled by the inroads of fungi. The best 
results were obtained with cultures made in Erlenmeyer flasks. 
Cultures of Funaria protonemata were kept in Erlenmeyer 
flasks from the first of January to the first of May, four months, 
in perfectly sterile conditions, and in both light and darkness. 
Parallel with these was a culture started at the same time upon 
sterilized earth. The mode of growth of the protonemata on the 
earth agreed with that already described by Schimper, two 
protonemal axes generally being produced from each spore and 
growing in opposite directions. There was almost a complete 
absence of any rhizoid production. Miiller-Turgau® claims a 
quite abundant production of rhizoids by Funaria protonemata. 
After growing for nine weeks the protonemata had produced an 
abundance of buds, and rhizoids were then produced from the 
basiscopic cell of the bud. 
Mention has already been made® of the power of Barbula 
muralis protonema to separate into distinct cells, which are 
conidia-like and have the power of growing into new protone- 
mata. Sachs speaks of this capability in regard to Funaria 
protonemata, and Schréder3s states it as a general principle, that 
moss protonemata, when cultivated on too dry soil, break up into 
the separate cells, which are more resistant, and grow into new 
protonemata under favorable conditions. In case of the leaf 
protonema of Barbula muralis 1 have shown that this manner of 
Srowth cannot be due to desiccation, since the culture was sup- 
3 — » plate 7. 
Arb. Bot. Inst. Wiirzburg 1: 480. 1874. 
33 einer regeneration as exhibited by mosses 25. Oswald Schmidt, Leip- 
1897. 
* Lehrbuch der Bot. 366. 1874. 
*Unt. Bot. Inst. Tiibingen 2:15-21. 1886. 
