LIVERWORTS. 



141 



for, and will serve for successive years' study. Mounts may also be made 

 from material preserved in formalin. Tease out a few of the spores and 

 elaters from the capsule with needles, in a drop of alcohol on the glass slip. 

 Melt a bit of glycerine jelly on a cover glass and just as the alcohol is evap- 

 orating from the slide lower the glycerine with the cover over them. See 

 figure 126. 



Spores and elaters from some other liverwort may be used if more 

 convenient. 



236. Antheridial plants. — One of the male plants is figured 

 at 118. It bears curious structures, each held aloft by a short 

 stalk. These are the antheridial re- 

 ceptacles. Each one is circular, thick, 

 and shaped somewhat like a bi-convex 

 lens. The upper surface is marked by 

 radiating furrows, and the margin is 

 crenate. Then we note, on careful 

 examination of the upper 

 surface, that there are 

 numerous minute open- 

 ings. If we make a thin 

 section of this 

 structure per- 

 pendicular t o 

 its surface we 

 shall be able to 

 unravel the mys- 

 tery of its in- 

 terior. Here we see, as shown in fig. 1 1 9, that each one of 

 these little openings on the surface is an entrance to quite a 

 large cavity. Within each cavity there is an oval or elliptical 

 body, supported from the base of the cavity on a short stalk. 

 This is an antheridium, and one of them is shown still more 

 enlarged in fig. 120. This shows the structure of the anther- 

 idium, and that there are within several angular areas, which 

 are divided by numerous straight cross-lines into countless 

 tiny cuboidal cells, the sperm mother cells. Each of these 



Fig. 118. 

 Male plant of marchantia bearing antheridiophores. 



