THE HIGHER CRYPTOGAMIA. 153 



ellipsoid group of very small cellules adhering firmly to one 

 another. In each of the latter, a spiral thread, consisting 

 of nitrogenous matter which is coloured brown by iodine, 

 is produced inside a lenticular vesicle which lies free in the 

 interior (PI. XX, fig. 16). 



The tabular cells of the walls of the antheridium contain 

 chlorophyll, and in the young state a flat lenticular nucleus 

 also, whose major axis is parallel to the outer surface of the 

 cell (PI. XIX, fig. 4). When the antheridium approaches 

 maturity, the colour of the chlorophyll-granules in many 

 mosses becomes a yellowish-red. This is the case in Funaria 

 hygrometrica, Bryum caspiticium , Polytrichum juniperimtm, 

 Gymnostomum pyriforme, and Neckera complanata. The 

 antheridia are usually intermixed with jointed hairs, the 

 so-called paraphyses, whose terminal cells are often (as is 

 the case in Mnium hornum and Funaria hygrometrica) 

 swollen to a clavate form, and in Polytrichum produce a 

 lancet-shaped expansion at the apex, originating from con- 

 tinual cell-division by means of differently inclined septa. 

 The fully-ripe antheridium opens at the apex, and permits 

 the escape of the small, enclosed cells, which contain the 

 spermatozoa. The process is very easily seen in water on 

 the stage of the microscope ; and that the same thing takes 

 place in nature, appears from the fact, that in every rich 

 male inflorescence in mosses, empty antheridia, open at 

 the apex, are found in company with ripening and ripe 

 antheridia. 



The bursting of the apex of the ripe antheridium of 

 Funaria hygrometrica occurs thus : — the apical cell, and 

 the youngest cell of the second degree, which is separated 

 from the latter by a steep septum, exhibit a considerable 

 enlargement of their outer wall, which expands in a 

 vesicular manner ; but the red colouring corpuscles of the 

 cell contents, (whose interior is now usually occupied by a 

 starch granule) do not enter into the expanded space. 

 Careful investigation shows that the cuticle only of the 

 cells of the apex of the antheridium is forced outwards,"* 

 and that the cavity between it and the firm membrane 



* See Unger's figure of an antlieridium of Polytrichum in the act of bursting 

 'N. A. A. C. L.,' v. xviii, p. II (1837), p. 790. PL 57, f. 1. 



