1915] BRYAN—ARCHEGONIUM OF SPHAGNUM SUBSECUNDUM 41 
to the Sphagnales, says: ‘‘The archegonia are found at the apex 
of some of the short branches at the summit of the plant, which 
externally are indistinguishable from the sterile branches.” 
CAVERS (2, p. 295), on the contrary, says: “‘The female branch 
grows for some time in the same way as an ordinary sterile branch, 
but the leaves visible from the outside of the branch become rapidly 
longer in passing from below upward, so that the branch takes 
the form of a loose, tapering, pointed bud, deep green in color, and 
stands out sharply from the vegetative branches associated with it.” 
Furthermore, there is some disagreement as to the time of the 
appearance of sex organs. According to SCHIMPER (10), antheridia 
are produced at any time, but are most abundant in autumn and 
winter. WALDNER (11) found mature antheridia and archegonia 
under the snow in February. Gayet (3) reports having spent 
much time searching for archeyonia in the winter, but only in the 
spring did he find them developing. However, he emphasizes 
the point that he does not wish to say archegonia are not produced 
at all in the winter, but rather that it is only in the early spring 
time one finds them being formed in the greatest abundance. 
To summarize, we find: (1) sex organs are believed by some 
to be of rare occurrence; (2) there is disagreement as to the recog- 
nition of archegonial branches; (3) there is some uncertainty con- 
cerning the time of the production of sex organs. 
To investigate these points in regard to S. subsecundum we 
have made a careful study of a bog covering about 20 acres near 
Mineral Springs, Indiana, 40 miles south of Chicago. This place 
was selected for several reasons. It contains enough water in the 
spring to escape being burned over, the annual fate of many 
bogs in the vicinity of Chicago, hence the study could be carried 
on without fear of having the material injured by fire. Also in 
previous years some sporophytes had been noted here. Further- 
more, polsters of a § phagnum (later identified by Mr. E. J. Httt as 
S. subsecundum) were well scattered through the bog, affording 
a wealth of material. 
Active work was begun the first week in November 1912. 
It soon became evident that S. subsecundum here studied is dioe- 
lous, and that when the sex organs are approaching maturity both 
