304 
PLANT STUDIES 
198. The antheridium. The male organ of the Bryophytes 
is called an antheridium, just as among Thallophytes, but 
it has a very different structure. In general among the 
FIG. 277. Sex organs of a common moss (Funaria): the group to the right represents 
an antheridium (A) discharging from its apex a mass of sperm mother cells (a), a 
single mother cell with its sperm (b), and a single sperm (c), showing body and 
two cilia; the group to the left represents an archegonial cluster at summit of 
stem (A), showing archegonia (a), and paraphyses and leaf sections (b), and also a 
single archegonium (B), with venter (b) containing egg and ventral canal cell, and 
neck (K) containing the disorganizing axial row (neck canal cells). After SACHS. 
Thallophytes it is a single cell (mother cell), and may be 
called a simple antheridium, but in the Bryophytes it is a 
many-celled organ, and may be regarded as a compound 
antheridium. It is usually a stalked, club-shaped, or oval to 
