1898 ] BRIEFER ARTICLES 429 
Hepatic, as in the true mosses, the growth in length of the archego- 
nium neck is in part apical. On the other hand, he maintains that, 
contrary to the generally accepted view, the moss archegonium does 
not have the canal cells of the neck cut off from the base of the apical 
cell, but they are the result of the division of a primary neck-canal cell 
as in the Hepatice. In short, he recognizes no essential difference 
in the type of archegonium in the two classes of bryophytes. 
The first genus treated by Gayet is Riccia, of which he studied 
several species, including RR. glauca. He does not, however, make it 
clear in his figures from which species the drawings were made. I 
have drawn from one of my slides of &. glauca a longitudinal section 
of the young archegonium which is shown in the accompanying fg. 7. 
It is perfectly evident that here the cover-cell has already undergone 
the quadrant divisions and no longer can function as an apical cell. 
The archegonium here figured is about the same age as the one fig- 
ured by Gayet in fg. 7 of his first plate. The occurrence of two resting 
nuclei in the terminal cell, without any trace of a division wall, shown 
by him in fig. 5 of the same plate, is, to say the least, remarkable. It 
is extremely likely, however, that proper staining would have shown a 
vertical wall between them. 
did 
3 4 : 
Fig. 1. Median longitudial section of the young archegonium of Riccia canes: 
d, d, the cover-cells.— Fig. 2. A similar section of the archegonium of Targionta 
hypophylla.—Fig. 3. Tran tion of the f cells of the young archegonium 
of Targonia.— Fig. 4. Cross-section of the neck of the archegonium of Spherocarpus 
terrestris, var. Californicus, showing the six peripheral cells.— Fig. 5- The four cover- 
cells from a young archegonium of Porella (Madotheca) Bolanderi.—All the fi 
drawn with the camera from microtome sections. 
The accompanying figures of the young archegonium of ed ee 
2, 3, show that here too, the quadrant divisions of the terminal cell 
occur very early, and that any appreciable growth in length of the 
neck due to the activity of an apical cell is out of the question. | 
Of all the forms examined by me, the one which approached pe 
est the condition described by Gayet was Porella (Me adotheca) Bolandert. 
