304 Mr J. R. Vaizey, On Splachnum luteum, Linn. [Nov 12, 
intercellular spaces between them. In this tissue, which may be 
regarded as an aqueous tissue, large masses of crystals of calcium 
oxalate were frequently found. 
Outside the aqueous tissue there is a quantity of parenchy- 
matous tissue with numbers of schizogenous intercellular spaces; 
the cells all contain large numbers of chlorophyll bodies, and this 
tissue extends into the umbrella-shaped organ. On the upper 
surface the cells are arranged close to one another, and shew a 
distinct tendency to an elongation of their axes in a direction 
vertical to the upper surface, thus forming a tissue with a striking 
likeness to the pallisade tissue of the leaves of the higher plants’; 
this is rendered more striking by a comparison with the develop- 
ment of the parenchyma of the lower surface, where the cells are 
very much elongated in a direction parallel to the surface with 
very much larger intercellular spaces. Stomata are found largely 
on the upper surface but none occur on the lower. A large 
quantity of starch is formed in the apophysis while it is quite 
young and immediately after it first becomes umbrella-shaped 
and before the spores ripen, the apophysis at this time being 
green; at a later stage the starch disappears and the starch- -forming 
plastids which before were large and well formed degenerate into 
small and comparatively inconspicuous bodies, the starch ap- 
parently being used up in the formation of spores. The apophysis 
then becomes the characteristic yellow colour of the species. 
The apophysis seems to be therefore comparable in many ways 
to a leaf of the Vascular Plants, and possibly homologous with 
true leaves. The discussion of this point must however be post- 
poned for the present. 
The mode of life of the sporophyte may be summarised thus :— 
The jfovt absorbs all the substances requisite for the nourish- 
ment of the young embryo until at any rate the apophysis is de- 
veloped and throughout the life of the sporophyte water, and in all 
probability some inorganic substances. 
The apophysis as soon as it is developed forms large quantities 
of carbohydrate, thus rendering it unnecessary for carbohydrate 
substances to be absorbed from the oophyte, which would hardly 
be able to supply sufficient for the development of so large a 
structure as the sporophyte. So by this means the oophyte is 
preserved from destruction by the sporophyte, so that the sporo- 
phyte is prevented from cutting off its own means of obtaining 
water. 
The central strand of the seta is the channel by means of 
which the water absorbed by the foot is conveyed to the apophysis. 
1 Haberlandt, loc. cit., also makes a comparison between the chlorophyll con- 
taining tissue of the sporophyte of the mosses and the pallisade tissue of leaves 
of vascular plants, but none of the cases he investigated are as striking as that of 
Splachnum luteum. 
