90 EVOLUTION OR LIFE: 
(Fig. 120, 4), inside of which will be found the embryo- 
cell (Fig. 120, 7). The embryo-cell, after the contact of 
the spiral filament, is changed into the Sporangium, or case 
which contains the spores, from which the new plant will 
be developed. 
The Hepatice, or Liverworts, seem to be transitional 
plants, leading up from the Green Alga and Characez to 
the Mosses and Ferns, they representing, probably, the 
common stem from which the roots of the Mosses and 
Ferns have diverged. 
MOSSES. 
The beautiful green velvety carpeting of woods com 
monly known as Mosses (Figs. 118, 119), growing most 
luxuriantly in damp, shady places, so useful from freely 
absorbing and retaining moisture, to be given out in time 
of drought, is made up of small delicate plants, each indi- 
vidual consisting of a stem and leaves, exhibiting under a 
low magnifying power a great variety and beauty of form. 
While Mosses, in the arrangement of their stem and leaves, 
differ greatly from the Jungermanniz, one group of them, 
the Hypoterygiz (Fig. 117) furnish perfectly the transition; 
the erect stem and leaves of the Hypoterygize agreeing in 
structure with the procumbent one of Jungermanniz. The 
reproductive apparatus of the Hypoterygiz, however, is 
like that of Mosses generally. This consists, as in Hepatice, 
of Archegonia and Antheridia. The Archegonia are flask- 
shaped bodies containing the embryo-cell. The Anther- 
idia (Fig. 120, C) are oval cellular bodies, having inside 
the spiral filament. (Fig. 120, D.) The embryo-cell (Fig. 
120, 4), by the contact of the spiral filament, is changed in 
Mosses, however, into a stalk supporting an urn-shaped 
body. In this urn are produced the spores, which do not 
at once reproduce the new Moss, but protrude a confervoid 
growth, the so-called Protonema, a structure very like that 
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