1915] BRYAN—ARCHEGONIUM OF SPHAGNUM SUBSECUNDUM 51 
guished from that of the Hepaticae by its peculiar apical growth; 
that in the Musci the canal cells do not arise by the activity of 
one mother cell as in the Hepaticae, but are produced in part by 
the division of the cover cell. This cover cell cuts off two sets of 
segments, the one being parallel to the axis of the archegonium 
and forming the wall cells of the neck; the other parallel to the 
base of the archegonium and contributing to the neck canal row. 
The view presented by Gavet (3) is in the main a contradic- 
tion. He holds that in both Hepaticae and Musci the growth of 
the archegonium is terminal, but no internal segments are added 
to the canal row by the cover cell, which cuts off segments forming 
the wall cells of the neck. 
SERVETTAZ (9, pp. 169-171) in a recent paper has advanced 
a new interpretation of archegonial formation. His description 
of the development in Phascwm cuspidatum may be summarized 
as follows. The initial cell divides transversely and gives a basal 
cell and a superior cell. The superior cell then divides obliquely 
a certain number of times, from two to five; then one of the 
cells placed below the terminal cell divides tangentially and 
determines the formation of a central cell, which by basipetal 
divisions gives a row of 8 cells, the canal row, the ventral canal 
cell, and the egg. The evidence offered for these statements 
certainly is not convincing, and if true this origin of the central 
cell differentiates Phascum from any of the Bryophytes now 
known. 
The evidence we have presented for Sphagnum has nothing in 
it to support the views of SERVETTAZ (9) and GaveEt (3). Further- 
More, it breaks the distinction between Musci and Hepaticae drawn 
by JAaNczEwsx1 (7), CAMPBELL (1), GOEBEL (4), etc. Here at 
least is one of the Musci in which the cover cell does not add to the 
canal row. 
a Conclusions 
The archegonium of Sphagnum subsecundum is synthetic. The 
Stalk,\ the thick venter, and the comparatively slender twisted 
neck ‘are moss characters; the relatively inactive cover cell, the 
Intercalary growth of the archegonium, and the low number of 
canal cells are hepatic characters as we know them today. 
