A NEW METHOD OF ASEXUAL PROPAGATION IN MOSSES. 
By Horace A. Wager, A.R.C.S., 
Lecturer in Biology at the Transvaal University College, Pretoria. 
Camfylopus trichodes is a moss growing in great abundance on the 
top of Table Mountain, Capetown. It is found in cushion-like 
patches varying in size from thin strips growing in the cracks of 
rocks to large patches on the ground. I found on nearly every 
patch examined numbers of small loost; pieces of what was evidently 
the same moss. These were all about the same size and of the same 
appearance. Each piece has a small stem of about 2 mm. in length 
and several leaves. When dry the leaves are yellowish and are screwed 
up, but with the apices spreading. A micro-photograph of some, 
magnified about two and a half times, is shown in Plate IY, Fig. 1. 
When placed on damp soil the leaves very soon absorb water and 
spread out, whilst some time later rhizoids make their appearance 
from the base of the stem, so that a new moss plant is formed. One 
of these, with spreading leaves and rhizoids just developing, is shown 
in Fig. 2. Each piece thus appears to be a form of bulbil, but there 
is here no storage of food or water as in ordinary bulbils for initial 
growth until green leaves appear. In the case of these moss bulbils 
this is overcome by the readiness with which the leaves absorb water 
and assume their nutritive function. Dissemination is arranged for 
by the bulbils being light and at the same time the spreading of the 
apical portions of the leaves have a peculiar significance. If a bulbil 
is dropped from a height it invariably drops with the stem part 
downwards, the whole bulbil acting as a kind of parachute. Thus if 
blown about by the wind the bulbils will drop in a position ready to 
commence growth, other conditions being favourable. I brought 
some from Table Mountain to Pretoria, keeping them in an envelope 
for three weeks. They then grew quite easily when placed on damp 
soil under glass. The rhizoids produced first are brown, with 
oblique septa, and these penetrate the soil, but further protonemal 
filaments can probably be produced on which buds will develop as 
in other mosses. The ease with which protonemal filaments can 
be made to develop from almost any part of the gametophyte, 
e.g. severed parts, is well known, but this cannot be regarded as a 
means available by the plant for reproduction except in case of 
accident, any more than cuttings of rose trees could be cited as a 
means of reproduction for a rose tree. Of course the formation of 
gemmae, whether on the leaves or in cups, is specially for the purpose 
of reproduction. The formation of these moss bulbiL is also of the 
same nature. In every case it is the terminal portion of the stem 
that develops into the bulbil and not lateral branches. Special pro- 
vision in the way of the formation of an absciss layer is necessary 
in order to discard the bulbil. Lateral branches are in many cases 
given off afterwards below this absciss layer, so that the plant is pro- 
vided with more leafy axes. 
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