44 The Study of Mosses. 



tiated and distinct from the spore itself, or confluent with it 

 externally or internally, or both, on which, or within the sub- 

 stance of which, at least in the more normal cases, two organs 

 are produced of different sexes, the one of which, called an 

 " archegonium," consists of a pitcher- shaped cyst, within 

 which there is a free single cell at the base, which is. destined, 

 after impregnation, to produce first an embryo, and then, by 

 continued development, a perfect plant like the parent. . . . 

 In mosses, on the contrary, and their allies, the object, after 

 germination, is to form a more or less filamentous, or scale-like 

 stratum, resembling either a little green lichen, or one of the 

 verdant thread-like confervas, such as Lyngbya muralis, which 

 clothes damp trees or the soil at the base of walls on the north- 

 ern side, or that which is least exposed to the direct rays of the 

 sun ; and when this is perfected, nodules appear, which by cell 

 formation give rise to the proper plant, whether symmetrical or 

 unsymmetrical, whose office is to produce fruit. On this plant, 

 then, either in the same or in distinct individuals, male and 

 female organs are produced, resembling more or less closely 

 the antheridia and archegonia of ferns. In the latter there is a 

 cell at the base analogous to that in the archegonia of ferns, 

 which is destined to be fertilized by spermatozoids formed in the 

 tissue of the antheridia." The result of the fertilization is, how- 

 ever, distinct from that of ferns, for in their case germination 

 produced a prothallus and impregnation afforded a true plant, 

 " whereas in mosses and moss allies the cell division of the basal 

 cell of the archegon* is a sporangium, or, as it is frequently 

 called, a capsule or theca, which, with various modifications, 

 gives rise to spores." 



Warmth and moisture cause moss spores to burst their outer 

 membranes, when the iDner one puts forth an elongation which 

 forms a green thread, and from these threads fertile buds arise. 

 The behaviour of these threads has attracted the attention of 

 Dr. Hicks, but Mr. 1 Berkeley does not accept that gentleman's 

 conclusions. He says : — " Dr. Hicks, in the 23rd vol. of the 

 Tratuactiona of the Linnean Society has described wonderful 

 changes which take place in these threads, and their conversion 

 into several genera of alga?, besides the formation of zoospores; 

 but as he does not identify the species to which ho observed 

 the threads belonged, and the production of zoospores is a 

 circumstance bo extremely anomalous, we find it difficult to 

 believe that lie had really portions of some moss before him, and 

 not the threads of algffi accidentally intermixed.'' 



Many mosses are readily cultivated, and afford elegant 

 "adornments" for what our friend Shirley Hibberd calls 



• The archegon ia the rudimentary organ which represents the ovule in the 

 higher flowcrlcss plants. 



