66 



COMPOUND OKGANS OP PLANTS. 

 Fig. 28. 



a. Jungermannia complanata in fruit, natural size. h. The fruit magnifieil, 

 allowing the perichEetium or sheath, at the base, the peduncle rising from it, and the 

 capsule at its summit not yet burst, c. The capsule split at its apex, and discharging 

 its spores, d. The capsule empty, showing its four valves. 



situations, and which may be found in fruit from January to 

 April. 



79. The spores of these plants are often mixed with spiral 

 filaments called elaters. Spores are now generally regarded as 

 produced by the agency of certain bodies analogous to the 

 stamens and pistils of flowering-plants, called antheridia and 

 pistillidia. These organs have been demonstrated more or 

 less in all the orders of the Cryptogamia or flowerless plants. 



80. In the hepaticas, or liverworts, the antheridia appear on 

 the fully developed plant. In the frondose species they are 

 imbedded in the substance of the frond or thallus, and in the 

 foliaceous species they are situated in the axils of the leaves. 



MUSOI, OB, JIOWSES. 



81. It is, however, in the mosses that the higher type of 

 vegetation is fully realized.- In them we have plants possess- 

 ing a distinct axis and foliage ; that is to say, a stem which 

 rises from the soil growing onward from its apex, and which 

 is symmetrically clothed with distinct leaves as it advances. 



