THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAMETOPHYTE AND THE 
DISTRIBUTION OF SEXUAL CHARACTERS IN FUNARIA 
HYGROMETRICA (L.) SCHREB. 
Mabel Mary Brown 
Introduction 
The conflicting statements published concerning the sexual conditions 
in Funaria hygrometrica suggested the problem of determ'ning by experi- 
mental methods the range of possibilities in the distribution of sex organs in 
this species. 
The reproductive organs of the Bryophytes were first clearly recognized 
as such by Hedwig (1782). He designated the sexual conditions found in 
the mosses, by analogy with those of the higher plants, as hermaphroditic, 
monoecious, and dioecious. This classification has been retained until 
the present time with the addition of several new terms. Schimper (i860, 
p. 13) added the term polygamy, applicable to that condition in which the 
male and female organs of a moss may be borne on the same plant or on 
different ones. Lindberg (1882) characterized those hermaphroditic species 
in which the archegonia are scattered among the antheridia and the entire 
group is enclosed by bracts as synoicous; he gave the designation paroicous 
to those in which the archegonia are isolated at the apex of an axis and the 
antheridia are borne in the axils of the leaves. He applied the term autoi- 
cous to monoecious mosses in which the sex organs are borne on separate 
branches of the same plant. He recognized four conditions of autoicism 
known as cladautoicism, rhizoautoicism, gonoautoicism, and pseudoautoicism. 
Combinations of synoicism, paroicism, and autoicism have been observed 
in some species. Such a combination is designated as heteroicism. When, 
within a species, the condition of dioecism is combined with any of those 
above mentioned, such a moss is said to be polyoicous. Polyoicism was 
early known as polygamy. Limpricht (1890) and Ruhland (1909) use the 
same terms but group them in a slightly different way in their classification. 
Physiologically there are biit two categories of first importance: monoe- 
cism, in which the spores, protonemata, and leafy axes (gametophores) are 
bisexual in their potentialities; and dioecism, the spores, protonemata, and 
leafy axes being strictly unisexual. In the Bryophytes these terms apply to 
the gametophyte, whereas in the Spermatophytes the same terms are 
applied to the sporophyte. Blakeslee (1906) proposed the substitution of 
the terms homothallic and heterothallic respectively for monoecious and dioe- 
cious when used in connection with the gametophyte. 
There is some confusion in the literature as to what constitutes dioecism 
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