— 57 — 



and decaying at the base. The stems lie close on one another and are 

 freely provided with tufts of rhizoids along the under surface. The leaves 

 also form rhizoids from the base of the costa, as shown in Fig. 2. The 

 bed of moss was dirty, being well filled with sand from the disintegrating 

 rock and inwashing by rains of finer material from the soil above. The 

 shoots are thus furnished with a soil in which to root without a change of 

 place, but as their hold on the parent stem is slight, when grown to the size 

 shown in Figs. 5 and 6, they easily become detached and in running water 

 would serve for much wider distribution. This is shown in specimens from 

 Boyne River, on which minute shoots with basal rhizoids are seen. Some 

 of them show but slight adhesion to the stems when but 2 or 3 mm. high. 

 The tufted rhizoids, though present in other places, are more abundant at 

 the base of branches and the beginning of new or annual growths. At 

 points where such growths start the stems are most readily broken, and 

 would most likely divide. 



The asexual propagation of F. grandifrons does not appear to have 

 been recorded. That of all the Fissidentaceas, at least through the medium 

 of brood-organs, is stated by Correns* to be either rare or as yet unobserved; 

 probably the latter. He cites the case of F. {Coiiomitrinni) Metzgeria (C. 

 Miill.) Par., a semiaquatic species of the eastern Soudan, whose leaves when 

 old bear little tufts of rhizoids on their point and other parts, out of which, 



Description of figures of Fissidens grandifrons each X 13. i. Female 

 flowers. 2. Leaf with basal rhizoids. 3. Very young bud. 4. Bud 

 more advanced. 5. Branch shoot with short axis. 6. Branch shoot 

 ready to be detached. 



*Vermehrung der Laubmoose durch Brutorgane und. Stecklinge, p. 54. 



