90 



The Natuealist. 



the female bud. The antheridia are small, stalked club-shaped or sac- 

 shaped bodies, when fully matured, and in all true mosses occur in 

 greater or smaller numbers, intermixed with certain filamentous 

 jointed bodies called the paraphyses, which paraphyses probably 

 serve as organs of nutrition. In the bog mosses these paraphyses are 

 absent, and the antheridia consists of a longish stalk surmounted by a 

 globular body. If these antheridia^ or male reproductive bodies, are 

 examined with a power of from 100 to 150 diameters, they will be 

 seen to contain a large group of small cellules adhering firmly 

 together, and in each of these cellules a small spiral thread will be 

 seen ; this is the spermatazoid, or fertilizing principle of the moss 

 plant, and may be considered as analogous to the pollen tube of 

 flowering plants. If ripe antheridia be examined on a. slide with a 

 little water, the slightest pressure of the thin cover glass will cause 

 them to burst at the top, and instantly you will see the free cellules 

 contained, swarming out with a sort of jerky motion. In a few 

 minutes the cellulose coat of these cells is absorbed, and the spiral 

 ciliated bodies, the antherozoids, thus liberated, commence moving 

 about in the water, after the fashion of some infusoria. This is a 

 beautiful sight, and may readily be seen by getting some of the male 

 flowers of Polytrichum commune, plentiful at Sutton about the end of 

 May. The outer leaves should be carefully removed, and some of the 

 antheridia should be examined in water with a § objective. 



The archegonia, or female reproductive organ, may exist in the same 

 bud as the antheridia, or in separate buds, according to the species 

 examined. These are somewhat longer and more slender than the 

 antheridia ; they are somewhat vase-shaped, and consist of a neck, 

 which is at first filiform, but widens below into an inflated oval or 

 pyriform body. In the centre of this oval or inflated portion, near the 

 top, will be seen a nucleated cell (better seen if a section be so made 

 as to pass through the archegone longitudinally — a rather difficult 

 and delicate matter). This nucleated body is the germinal vesicle, 

 and after the archegonium has acquired some size, a closed canal will 

 be seen passing down the neck into that part of the oval body in 

 which the germinal vesicle is situated. After a while the cells 

 bounding the top of this closed canal are absorbed, thus leaving a 

 free passage down the open canal to the germinal vesicle. Down 

 this canal the spermatozoids pass, reaching at length the germinal 

 vesicle. After this has taken place, the germinal vesicle, by a 

 merismatic cell division, becomes divided — first, into two nucleated 



