10 GUIDE TO CRYPTOGAMS. 



BRYOPIIYTA. Orders : 



1 a. Plant body consisting of a stem bearing leaves radi- 

 ally disposed; branching scarcely ever truly dichoto- 

 mous. Sporogonium having the capsule covered by 

 a hood-like calyptra ; elaters none. 



BRYACE^E. (True Mosses.) Plants generally low and 

 tufted. Stems simple or branched. Leaves costate or ecos- 

 tate, never with the cells as in Sphagnacere. Capsule of various 

 forms, with a lid, orifice with a peristome or rarely naked. 

 (See page 11.) 



SPHAGNACE^]. (Peat Mosses.) Plants soft and flaccid, 

 usually of comparatively large size ; growing mostly in tufts or 

 patches in bogs or wet places. Main stem mostly undivided, 

 bearing copious lateral branches. Leaves ecostate, translucent, 

 formed of two kinds of cells : (1) large hyaline ones ; (2) smaller 

 chlorophyllose ones which form a network of rhomboidal or 

 hexagonal meshes around the former. Capsule globose, with a 

 lid, orifice naked. (See page 16.) 



1 b. Plant body consisting of a stem bearing leaves dis- 

 posed bilaterally, or of a t hall us ; in both cases there 

 is a marked difference between upper and under sur- 

 face ; branching always dichotomous. Sporogonium 

 with the calyptra as a sheath at the base; elaters 

 present (except in Micciacice) . 



JUNGERMANNIACE^]. (Scale Mosses.) Plant-body 

 consisting of a stem bearing leaves or of a more or less branched 

 th alius. Capsule usuallj' spherical and long stalked, opening by 

 four valves ; columella wanting. (See page 16.) 



ANTHOCEROTACE^E. (Hornworts.) Plant-body an 

 irregularly branching thallus. Capsule two-valved at maturit}' ; 

 columella present. (See page 18.) 



MARCHANTIACE^E. (Liverworts.) Plant-body a di- 

 chotomously or radiately branched thallus, scaly beneath. 

 Capsule spherical, short stalked, opening irregularly or by 

 imperfect valves ; often pendant from the under surface of a 

 carpocephalum. Columella wanting. (See page 18.) 



