Bi- 
as storage cells for water at the base of some Sphagnum leaves provides a 
further analogy. Another point that attracts the attention in examining a 
flower of the Tonduff plant is the close resemblance between the turgid mar- 
ginal cells nearest the base of the bract (e. g. b, Fig. 3) and the uppermost 
cell of the swollen clavate paraphyses ; so much so that I have frequently 
been in doubt whether I was looking at one or the other. This turgescence 
of the apical cell of the paraphyses of the <$ flower is characteristic of certain 
large groups q| mosses, and will be found usually correlated with adioicousor 
autoicous inflorescence, large discrid $ flowers, and lax areolation. It obtains, 
for instance, almost throughout the Splachnaceae, Funariaceae and 
Mniaceae ; and its special correlation with the male organs is manifested by 
the fact that not only are the 9 paraphyses in these cases almost without 
exception filiform, but even in certain synoicous species, e. g. of Mnimn, the 
paraphyses surrounding the antheridia are markedly clavate, while those in 
proximity to the archegonia are of the more usual, filiform shape. 
The paraphyses in these cases act, no doubt, as reservoirs for keeping 
the antheridia properly moistened. The antherozoids, in exact contrast with 
the spores of the mature capsule, require conditions of moisture to perform 
their proper functions. They are in fact aquatic organisms, and their con- 
stancy in this respect throughout whole groups of the Cryptogamia suggests 
that this feature is an inherited character retained ever since the emergence 
of their primeval algoid ancestor from its aquatic home to find a new envir- 
onment on terra Jirma. May we pre-suppose a primitive ancestral Funaria 
with its sporophyte already well developed, but with the vegetative organs 
as yet confined to the protonema with its algoid structure, as in the remarka- 
ble Ephemeroftsis Tjbodensis of Java; having its antheridia surrounded by 
water reservoirs in the shape of turgid paraphyses, possibly also with turgid 
end-cells to the branches of the protonema, the “ Assimilations-organen ” of 
the Ephemeropsis ? And may we see in these paraphyses, or in this pro- 
tonemoid development, the beginning of the structure afterwards to be 
evolved into the foliar organs, commencing with the bracts surrounding the 
antheridia ? In this case the marginal cells of the newly evolved foliar struc- 
ture would probably be turgid as in the bracts of the Tonduff Funaria , and it 
would only be in the later stages, as the foliar organs developed a greater 
expanse of lamina, that these special reservoir cells would be dispensed with, 
and the margin take the normal, simple structure of the rest of the leaf. If 
so we might possibly see in the bracts of the Tonduff plant a reversion to a 
type midway between the organs of the supposititious ancestral leafless plant 
and those of the present normal F hygrometrica . 
Whatever be the explanation of the structure, it would appear from 
Wilson’s description quoted above that there is a certain plasticity about 
the male bracts in this species, as regards the serrature of their margins, and 
the student, would do well to keep an eye on them with a view to throwing 
further light on the problem involved. 
I have to express my thanks to Mr. L. A. Boodle, of the Jodrell Labora- 
tory, Kew, for assistance and suggestions. 
Northampton, England. 
