342 Transactions. — Botany. 



Art. XLYIII. — Observations on the different Modifications in the Ca2)sules 



of 3fosses, with reference to the Dispersion of their Spores. 



By Captain F. W. Huttox, C.M.Z.S., etc. 



Plate XXII. 

 IBead before the Otago Institute, Vith October, 1874.] 



The fructification of mosses consists of a variously shaped capsule, or 

 sporangium, generally placed on a stalk, which is sometimes short, but gener- 

 ally much elongated (Plate XXIL, fig. 13). Through the centre of the capsule 

 rises a pillar of cellular tissue called the columella (fig. 15), and it is round 

 the columella, between it and the wall of the capsule, that the spores, or seeds, 

 are formed. 



It is evident that if these spores were liable to be all blown away together 

 by the first puff of wind that occurred after they were ripe, or to be all 

 knocked out by the first drop of rain that fell upon the capsule, they would 

 have but little chance of being widely dispersed. If also the spores escaped 

 and were blown away in moist weather they could not travel far, for they 

 would stick to the first leaf or stone that they were blown against. If, on the 

 other hand, there were some means of holding the spores fast in wet weather, 

 and letting them escape when the air was dry, and then only by a few at a 

 time, so that some might be driven off in one direction, some in another, it is 

 evident that they would then be scattered as far and as wide as possible. 



But as mosses inhabit very different stations, some living among long 

 grass or in swamps, others on exposed walls ; some on trees, others under 

 water; some in sheltered ditches, and others on mountain peaks, different 

 combinations will be required by different species. For example, those species 

 that grow among long grass require a long fruit-stalk to elevate the capsule 

 above the grass and so let it be exposed to the wind ; while this would be 

 detrimental to those mosses that live in exposed situations, and these generally 

 have the fruit-stalk so reduced in length that the capsule is buried in and 

 protected by the perichsetial leaves, unless the species possesses some other and 

 more perfect way of preventing its spores being blown away ; and I proi)Ose 

 to offer a few observations on the different approaches towards perfection in 

 attaining this object that are found in various genera and species of mosses. 



I have already said that the spores are contained in a capsule placed on 

 the top of a fruit-stalk. In by far the larger number of mosses this capsule 

 is furnished with a lid, or operculum (fig. 14), which falls off when the spores 

 are ripe, and the mouth of the capsule is then seen to be either naked (fig. 1), 

 or furniahed with numerous teeth and cilia, called the peristome (tig. 14). The 



