FUNARIA HYGROMETRICA (l.) SCHREB. 
Methods 
In order to determine the exact sexual condition of Funaria hygro- 
metrica, it was considered necessary to make single spore cultures. This 
was done by first germinating the spores on the surface of a liquid culture 
medium, and later removing the young protonemata, with the aid of a 
binocular microscope, to individual pots of soil. 
A sufficient supply of spores for the work was insured by bringing game- 
tophores bearing mature sporophytes into the laboratory, and sowing the 
spores from time to time. It is practicable to do this, since spores of 
F. hygrometrica are viable for several years. The plants were obtained at 
Eagle Heights, near Madison, Wisconsin. 
In order so far as possible to avoid contamination of the cultures, the 
capsules were thoroughly washed in sterile distilled water. It is well to 
separate the sporophyte from the gametophyte at the base of the seta, 
leaving the stalk to be used as a handle for manipulating the sporophyte 
during the washing of the capsule and the sowing of the spores. 
The culture media used in the germination of the spores were tap water, 
distilled water, and the solution used by the Marchals (1906) in their work 
on the sexuality of the spores of dioecious mosses. The formula given by 
them is as follows: 
Distilled water 1000 cc. 
Ammonium nitrate i gm. 
Potassium sulphate 0.5 gm. 
Magnesium sulphate 0.5 gm. 
Calcium sulphate 0.5 gm. 
Ammonium phosphate 0.5 gm. 
Iron sulphate o.oi gm. 
Potassium hydroxide (10% solution) a few drops. 
The culture fluids were placed in Erlenmeyer flasks and petri dishes 
and sterilized in the autoclave for from thirty minutes to one hour at five 
pounds pressure. 
Marchal's solution proved the most satisfactory medium. The per- 
centage of spore germination was higher, and a more luxuriant growth of 
protonemata resulted when spores were sown on this solution than when 
they were sown on either tap or distilled water. A few cultures were made 
in which Sphagnum soaked in tap water, distilled water, and in Marchal's 
solution respectively was used as a substratum for the germinating spores 
after being sterilized. This proved unsatisfactory because of the difficulty 
of locating and removing individual gametophytes from the Sphagnum. 
Petri dishes were more convenient than Erlenmeyer flasks as containers 
of the culture fluids because of the ease with which the development of the 
protonemata could be followed and the individual protonemata could be 
removed. 
