BRIEFER ARTICLES. 
POLYEMBRYONY IN SPHAGNUM 
(WITH THREE FIGURES) 
DuRING July 1904, while collecting sporophytes of Sphagnum for class 
use, the writer discovered the peculiar specimens described in this note. 
The particular species of Sphagnum has not been determined, but it is a 
large variety which grows abundantly 
in the swamps around Tower, Minne- 
sota 
Among the thousands of sporo- 
phytes handled, five cases were found 
Where in two archegonia at the end of 
the same branch the oospheres had 
been fertilized and each oosperm had 
developed into a normal sporophyte. 
In these specimens each capsule was 
enclosed by its separate calyptra and 
the haustra of each two sister sporo- 
phytes were inserted side by side in 
the bulbous end of the pseudopodium 
(ig. 2). 
Two cases were also found where two sporophytes had developed in 
the venter of one archegonium (jig. 2). They were more or less distorted 
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ts £2 
and modified by mutual pressure, but each presented the essential structure 
of a normal sporophyte (fig. 3). When studied in sections, the tissue of 
wa. 365 
