38 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 



wished to study its complete life cycle in its native environment 

 the middle and latter part of August will be found to furnish a 

 great number of gametephytes bearing sexual organs. The 

 Marcantia may be seen growing all the year round on damp rocks 

 in sheltered ravines and mossy slopes sending its tender rhizoids 

 into the hard rock, presenting a beautiful and peculiar study of the 

 disintegration of the harder substance. It can readily be recog- 

 nized by its ribbon like thallis which, branching regularly, sends 

 up its umbrella like receptacle bearing either antheridium or Arche- 

 gonium. The Polymorphia produces its reproductive organs in late 

 March or early April while other forms have been discovered with 

 fertilized Archegonia in mid-winter. 



The fungi groups and lichen are well represented in any 

 woodland and abound at almost any season of the year forming 

 growths on decaying v,fOod, spreading over entire trees, or forming- 

 great gray masses in the rocks, preparing the way for higher forms 

 of plant life. Some mossy hillsides where springs creep out and 

 trickle down' forming bogs of peatmoss, will reveal the rustling 

 "Equisetum" known familiarly as "horse tail". 



In connection with the Canada toad flax, a remarkable incident 

 has been noted. Previous to 1910 all specimens gathered near 

 Guthrie had only the odor of ordinary green grass. That year- 

 two or three plants discovered gave forth a faint perfume. In 

 each succeeding year we have found them more and more scented 

 until the last vear or two all have become fragrant. 



MOSSES AS ROCK BUILDERS 

 W. H. Emig, 1917. 



At the present time there is a continuous development of 

 travertine on the numerous falls along two parallel streams of the 

 Arbuckle mountains, namely, Honey Creek and Falls Creek. The 

 evolution of this travertine involves a number of complicated pro- 

 cesses v/hich are better understood as one traces out the origin 

 of the materials and the consecutive steps through- which the ma- 

 terials are conveyed into their present form and position. The 

 various types of travertine formed in the presence of felt-like 

 masses of algae, species of Oedogouiiiiii and Vauchcria, and to ag- 

 gregated turfs of the water masses Philoiiotis calcarca and Didymo- 

 don tophaceits are quite characteristic. The similarity in the mi- 

 croscopic structure of recent and older deposits of travertine is 



