— 45 — 
The tube and the egg cell cavity were clearly seen. They were light and 
bright, doubtless due to the refractive quality of the cytoplasm. 
May 13th, an archegonium was observed in which a drop of dark fluid was 
passing slowly down the tube. It reached the egg cell. The egg cell 
changed in appearance, dividing, then uniting and finishing for the time of 
observation in a bright cell with a small dark spot on the upper side. This 
may have been the downward passage of an antherozoid. It was not clear 
enough for a positive statement, but it suggests something to be looked for 
about the middle of May. 
June 14th, in a tuft examined one archegonium had a sheath around its- 
base. The cover glass was pressed and the embryo sporophyte came out at 
the base. The other four were nearly as tall but had no sheaths. 
July 14th, the Catharinea sporophytes were about one-half inch above 
the leaves. They looked like slender green stems. One week later the cap- 
sules began to show, and by August 1st the calyptras were seen. 
October 1st, the sporophytes were of full height but the capsules were 
not completely filled out. December 1st, these seemed full grown but there 
was no suggestion of their capsules opening. 
Bringing forward the first observation of the year it may be safe to con- 
clude that these capsules will discharge their spores next March and April. 
This Catharinea therefore developes more rapidly than the Hair-cap. 
For Catharinea the time from the maturity of the antheridia and archegonia 
and their contents, to the maturity of the sporophytes is about eleven 
months, while for the Hair-cap it is seventeen months. 
Botanical Laboratory, University of Vermont, Jan. 18, 1905. 
LICHENOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS. 
Frederick Leroy Sargent. 
In popular language we hear lichens usually spokpn of as “mosses,” 
a name which, unfortunately, belongs by right to little leafy plants 
very different from lichens, and has, moreover, been applied to so 
many other kinds as to have become sadly indefinite. On the other hand, 
the name lichen — which was given to this group about two hundred years 
ago by the great botanist Tournefort— has the advantage of being used 
for these plants alone, and is therefore much to be preferred. 
It is usually an easy matter to distinguish a lichen at sight. In the first 
place, the absence of anything like leaves regularly arranged upon a stem, 
at once separates them from the true mosses and higher plants. Then 
there is the peculiarity that, although a great variety of colors are exhibited, 
there is one — the bright green of foliage or grass — which, under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, they never assume: and in this respect they differ from certain 
liverworts which in form they sometimes resemble. Although they often 
grow where there is moisture, lichens are not aquatic, and thus they differ 
from Algae , which, with few exceptions, grow only in the water. Finally, 
the fact that lichens are air-plants—/, e., derive all their nourishment from 
