43 
their rosettes of bright green leaves surrounding the antheridial 
and archegonial clusters. On the fresh, broken soil of the 
oe trenches and on the newly graded banks behind the 
museum they n company with young Jlerchaniza plants, 
fern Smale ona snc of the waxy spheres of the grape 
ga (Botrydium granulatum), Each time they were examined 
Saal age some of the archegonia were found fertilized. 
t of autumn rain brought some motile antherozoids to 
some ripe archegonium ; every day of warm sunshine saw some 
new egg-cells dividing and their encircling walls expanding into 
the structure which ultimately breaks away from the base and is 
carried up on the summit of the lengthening pedicel, to become 
the protecting cap or calyptra for the young spore-case while 
it is maturing its spores, in 
spring-time. 
By the fifteenth of May, 
these same beds in the herba- 
ceous grounds will be filled 
with colonies of the ‘Top 
Moss,” and wherever ashes 
have been thrown or wood 
burned, there the or 
old . > 
houses and on old stone oe Fic. 10.—Ceratodon purpureus. 
cling all winter, and twist ee stalks about each mae like 
strands of rope, whence its name. n the perennial rock spe- 
cies like the ‘‘ Purple-horn-toothed moss,” Ceratodon ee 
begins as early as February to lengthen upward its wine-red pedi- 
ae cay sules, Then when the lids fall off, These capsules become 
still more resemble those of the chamois of t ps. These 
devices are for the protection and ejection of ne spores. 
E. G. Britton. 
