22 THE SPHAGNACEZ OR PEAT:MOSSES OF 
when he found that dehiscence took place after about an hour’s 
immersion; he then placed in water also some antheridia, which 
on rupturing charged the fluid with abundance of antherozoids, and 
some of this he added to the other preparation. 
He found that the antherozoids did not seem to have any 
tendency to direct themselves towards the entrance of the canal, 
but reached it fortuitously, and then appeared to introduce them- 
selves with difficulty; the ciliated extremity which consists of an 
amylaceous granule always goes first, and it is sometimes arrested 
by the plasma in the canal, and then struggles to clear itself; this 
accomplished, it moves on more briskly until it reaches the 
germinative globule suspended in the fluid in the archegonial 
cavity ; on this it fixes itself, all movement ceases, and a direct 
fusion of the two appears to take place. 
Only one archegonium develops into fruit, and after impregna- 
tion the apex and canal become coloured red or yellow; the pedicel 
then enlarges, for the fertilized germinal cell passes down into it 
to become the fruit, and bears the now hollow ventral portion with 
the shrivelled stylidium on its apex. This germinal cell is pyriform 
and contains a large nucleus, and as soon as impregnation takes 
place, active cell multiplication is set up, and the single cell 
becomes an oblong body filled with slimy fluid and minute granules, 
and the pedicel is no longer defined from the ventral part; through 
the soft pedicel the embryo fruit forces its way down, and so into 
the interior of the fruit receptacle, which has become elongated 
and obtusely conical. 
Next, the embedded pedicel of the embryo expands in width by 
cell multiplication, and becomes a hemispherical protuberance 
elevated above the dome-shaped receptacle. The cells lying at 
the base of the pedicel alone continue to divide transversely, and 
the pedicel itself becomes nearly spherical, and not being able to 
penetrate farther downward, it with the cuticular and peripheral 
layers covering it becomes elevated upward. During the rapid 
extension of the lower part of the fruit, the inner cellular texture 
of the lower portion of the archegone has disappeared, and the 
rudimentary capsule has developed to a short cylinder, its outer coat 
consisting of a single layer of very thin cells, which corresponds to 
the calyptra, gradually stretches, becomes still thinner by the 
swelling of the young capsule, until it bursts or tears into shreds ; 
rapid cell multiplication goes on in the fruit, and a spherical capsule 
