d mere granule consisting of a single cell with a double membranous 

 coat, containing no embryo, and, therefore, no plumule, radicle or 

 cotyledons. Germination takes place from any part of it, and, in 

 many cases, the body produced is not the future plant growing 

 above ground but only a stage in the life-history of the plant 

 — Moss or Fern as the case may be. When a Fern spore 

 germinates it produces a flat leaf- like body called a prothallus, 

 on which are formed antheridia and pistillidia, organs serving 

 the same kind of purpose as the stamens and pistils of ordinary 

 flowers. After fertilization has taken place, resulting in the 

 production of a young fern, the prothallus, having served its pur- 

 pose, withers away. When a vioss spore germinates, a green mass 

 of jointed threads called a protoneina is produced, and from this 

 there arise shoots that grow into moss plants, the protonema, 

 except in a few cases, withering away (in the Ephermerce, plants of 

 rapid growth, the protonema is persistent during the life of the 

 plant). It must be noticed that the fern spore gives rise not to the 

 plant we call a fern, but to a prothallus which is called the Jirst 

 generation or sexual generation or oophore. The fern, as we see 

 it above ground, does not bear autheridia and pistillidea but only 

 spores. It is, therefore, called the second generation, the asexual 

 generation or sporophore. Alternation of generations in mosses 

 occurs in a difierent manner. First there is the spore, then the 

 protonema, then the above-ground moss which is also the sexual 

 generation or oophore. This generation, by means of its antheridia 

 and pistillidia, brings about the asexual or second generation or 

 sporophore which is none other than the capsule. Here, then, is 

 the cycle of moss-life — spore, protonema, moss-plant, spore, over and 

 over and over again. Alternating generations, are not confined to the 

 Vegetable Kingdom but are very familiar to students of Zoology, 

 for instance in the life-history of a jelly fish. The leaf of a moss 

 which is always sessile, is a very important part of the plant, not 

 only for obvious reasons but also because its structure 

 has a great deal to do with classification. The field botanist re- 

 members all about net-veined, parallel and forked venation, but 

 does not need to know much about the details of leaf structure in 

 order to refer a plant — say a Buttercup — to its natural order, but 

 the student of mosses has, again and again, to itse his magnifier 

 (and his ' binocular ' too) in examining the leaf and trying to make 

 out what is characteristic in its structure. The areolation, as it is 

 called, is important in all mosses, but especially so in the case of 

 those that never bears fruit. When examining such a moss, the 

 student has to carefully note its habit and then look to the leaf to 

 be his guide. It used to be thought that the peristome was, so to 

 I, everything, but now the cell-structure of the leaf is known to 



