6S FLOWERLESS PLANTS 



to establish a fresh moss plant, and we can 

 easily see how well their dispersal is secured. 

 On a breezy day in the early summer the cases 

 will sway backwards and forwards in the wind ; 

 meanwhile the spores escape, almost as Ught as 

 the air itself, and floating away, may be carried 

 to a great distance. 



The most happy outcome of the joumeyings 

 of the spore is that it should finally come to a 

 resting place in some damp, shady soil. The 

 germination of the spore is followed by the 

 production of a network of green threads known 

 technically as a protonema, which lies along the 

 moist surface of the ground. At certain points 

 in the filaments there arise buds, very much 

 after the same style as is to be seen in the 

 case of strawberry runners. All these give rise 

 to moss stems which develop on the familiar 

 lines. By the dying away of the protonema 

 these stems may become isolated, so that the 

 members of a great colony of moss plants 

 appear to be individuals, although as a matter of 

 fact they may all owe their origin in the first 

 place to the same mass of green threads. From 

 the stems are developed certain fibres which 

 chiefly serve the mechanical purpose of fixing 



