THE MOSS. 



735 



proper, however, is not developed forthwith from these germinating spores, but the 

 latter give rise in the first place to a pro-embryo, a preliminary stage of the proper 

 plant, and which is termed the Protonema ; all that is most essential respecting this 

 has been stated in Lecture V (p. 6?'). TliTthis protonema the leafy shoots arise by 

 altered growth and correspondingly altered cell-divisions. I pay no further attention 

 to this structure here, although it forms .one of the most effective organs of propa- 



FlG. \ifi,—Cathariiiea itjidtilala, a Moss (after Scliimper). 



gation, and in some cases, indeed, goes on living for years, whereas the proper Moss- 

 plants on it only recur annually as temporary structures. 



More detailed consideration of the true reproductive organs may be made in 

 connection with another Moss, Funaria hygrometrica, already mentioned previously, 

 which occurs very frequently in dense clumps on grass-plots, in woods, &c., and is 

 conspicuous even to the non-botanical observer by means of the very numerous and 

 long-stalked bright orange-red ' fruits.' The plantlets themselves are small, only a few 



