BRIEFER ARTICLES 
NOTES ON FUNARIA HYGROMETRICA 
(WITH FIVE FIGURES) 
It is usually assumed by most authors of botanical textbooks that 
Funaria is dioecious. CAMPBELL" says that it is “strictly dioecious.’’ 
Boop x? showed that while in general th g b n sep 
plants, occasionally archegonial heads arise as branches of a main axis 
which is terminated by an antheridial head. Hotrerty? claimed that 
in Mnium the egg and ventral canal cell may sometimes be the same 
size. In an undetermined species of Mnium, CoKER‘ found two dis- 
tinct eggs, with their ventral canal cells, at the base of and in direct 
line with the single row of neck canal cells. 
ile examining large quantities of Funaria hygrometrica, two or 
three well developed antheridia and the same number of quite mature 
archegonia were repeatedly found in the same head, which was usually 
conspicuous on account of its size. Also in these heads antheridia with 
a bulbous basal and a tapering apical region, resembling quite closely 
the general form of a short-necked archegonium, were not uncommon. 
The archegonia of Funaria usually have 8-12 neck canal cells. An 
ordinary archegonium with 8 neck canal cells and the usual long stalk 
1s shown in fig. r. Fig. 2 shows an extremely long-necked archegonium, 
Which had 22 neck canal cells and a relatively short stalk. This arche- 
gonium was found in a head which also bore 5 antheridia. Fig. 3 shows 
an archegonium in which two eggs will finally develop; the ventral 
canal cells have not yet been cut off. Fig. 4 illustrates the presence of 
two eggs and their ventral canal cells. Fig. 5 shows an archegonium 
having 2 eggs, each of which is definitely related to its own row of neck 
canal cells. The three neck canal cells belonging to the lower egg have 
been pushed aside by the upper egg. 
‘CaMBPELL, D. H., Mosses and Ferns, 1905. Dp. 195- 
3 *Boopte, L. A., The monoecism of Funaria hygrometrica Sibth. Annals of 
Otany 20: 293-209. figs. 2. 1906, 
*Hotrerry, G. M., The development of the archegonium of Mnium cuspidatum. 
Bor. Gazerre 37:116-126. pls. 5, 6. 1904 
*Coxer, W. C., Selected notes. Bot. GAZETTE 353135-138- 1903- 
225] (Botanical Gazette, vol. 51 
