180 



which are not mentioned in Goebel's Organographic der Pflanzen 

 or in other works on Bryophyta to which I had access. It 

 appears, however, that the violent discharge of antherozoids in 

 Conoceplialiim was described in 1856 by the late M. Thuret.* 

 M. Ed. Bornet, who kindly wrote informing me of this observa- 

 tion of Thuret's, makes a reference to it in his " Notice bio- 

 graphique sur G. A. Thuret," f and it is also mentioned by M. 

 Le Jolis in " Remarques sur la nomenclature hepaticologique," 

 1894, p. 130. 



It has of course been long known that when the ripe antherid- 

 ium of a liverwort or a moss takes ud water, the mass of anther- 

 ozoids becomes swollen and bursts through the antheridium-wall. 

 In various mosses, the antheridium ends above in a well-marked 

 cap (" Oeffnungskappe " of Goebel j), consisting of a single cell 

 {e.g., Funarid) or a group of cells (e.g., Polytriclmvi). The cells 

 of this cap become mucilaginous and on absorbing water are 

 disorganized, leaving an opening through which the antherozoid- 

 mass escapes. The existence of this cap and the manner in 

 which the antheridial contents escape are indicated in Hedwig's 

 descriptions and figures of moss-antheridia in his " Theoria gener- 

 ations, " 1784. For full details and figures, reference may be 

 made to the descriptions of Goebel § and of Schaar. || In Spliag- 

 U7ini and the majority of the Jungermanniaceae, the antheridium 

 is usually spherical and there is, as a rule, no apical cap, but the 

 mode of dehiscence is essentially the same ; the cells forming the 

 upper part of the antheridium-wall become mucilaginous and 

 absorb water, either becoming detached or cohering to form 

 valves which curve outwards. In Frullania, the apex of the 

 antheridium is occupied by a radiating series of cells which are 

 considerably longer than those forming the rest of the wall. 

 The writer has observed that these elongated cap-cells become 



■' Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, 4 : 216. 



t Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. V. 2 : 336. 1S75. 



\ Organographie, 238. 



# Organographic, 239 ; also " Ueber den Oeffnungsmechanismus der Moosan- 

 theridien." Suppl. Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, 1898. 



|| " Ueber den Bau und die Art der Entleerung der reifen Antheridien bei Poly- 

 tricAum." Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges. 15: 479. 1897. 



