— 8o — 
These root-hair like threads fork frequently, intertwine one with another 
and thus form the impenetrable fungus-like masses ; they are of an almost 
uniform diameter, averaging 6jli although some are found as small as 3 ju and 
some as large as gju (Figure 1). 
According to Correns ( 1 . c. p. 45), it has long been known that the leaves 
can produce rhizoids. Schimper, as early as 1848, saw them mainly at the 
apex of the bracts surrounding the reproductive organs. These rhizoids 
intertwine and form a thick felt, which prevents any further development of 
the stem. Upon this felt plantlets develop, after which the entire tuft is 
covered with them, decays, and forms a substrate for the new plants. He 
states, that this mode of reproduction happens so frequently, that the spread- 
ing of this seldom fruiting moss depends upon it. Berggren, on the other 
hand, found rhizoids at the apex of the lower leaves, but seldom found any 
young plants developing, at any rate as long as the leaves remained attached 
to the parent plants. However, he observed, that when the leaves for some 
to him unknown cause, perhaps due to age, began to fall, often lying in 
masses around the tuft, that, not only from the apices but also from the bases 
of these leaves, rhizoids developed and also green protonemata, and upon 
both young plants developed. Upon attached leaves, he never found pro- 
tonema. 
To the above two modes, Correns adds still a third mode of asexual re- 
production and classifies them as follows: 
1. The formation of rhizoids at the apex of attached normal leaves. 
2. The formation of rhizoids upon attached perichaetial leaves. (Found only 
on female plants). 
3. The formation of leaves readily breakable from the parent stem. (Brut- 
blatter). 
First — The formation of rhizoids at the apex of attached leaves, so far as 
Correns was able to learn, took place rather late in the life of the leaf, probably 
in its second year, when it was some distance down the stem and took no 
longer an active part in assimilation. In all the cases he examined the 
formation of rhizoids was limited to the upper surface of the apex of the leaf. 
It is well known that the leaf of this moss is composed of two kinds of cells, of 
living chlorophyll bearing assimilative cells, and of dead transparent water 
bearing cells, the latter surrounding the former. Of course the rhizoids can 
not arise from the transparent cells. Close examination reveals the fact, that 
although the green cells are surrounded by the transparent ones, yet near 
the apex one finds, almost constantly, especially on the upper surface, the 
green cells, right at the surface. It is from these cells that the rhizoids ori- 
ginate. (Fig. 2. B, C, and D). 
Second — The formation of rhizoids upon perichaetial leaves, Correns 
finds only upon unfertilized female blossoms. They take their origin from 
rows of chlorophyll-bearing cells lying between hyaline cells on the back of 
the leaf (Fig. 2. A). It is mainly the innermost leaves that produce the 
rhizoids. These intertwine and form quite a thick grey felt and may grow 
from stem to stem. Protonemata he never found upon them nor ever any 
young plantlets. 
