On the Absorption of Water and its relation to 
the constitution of the cell-wall in Mosses. 
BY 
J. REYNOLDS VAIZEY, B.A. 
HE mode of absorption of water by Mosses has oc- 
X casioned a certain amount of controversy. Haberlandt 1 
maintains that his experiments have proved that water is 
absorbed by the parts of the moss-stem and root-hairs 
imbedded in the soil, and is transmitted thence through 
the aerial parts of the stem to the so-called leaves. This 
opinion he still adheres to in his latest paper on the subject 2 . 
Oltmanns 3 maintains, on the contrary, that water is ab- 
sorbed in the oophyte of the Mosses by means of the leaves 
and that there is no transpiration-current. Oltmanns’ ex- 
periments and the general considerations which he brings 
forward in support of his view are most convincing. 
I was desirous, in connection with certain speculations as 
to the morphological relations of the Muscineae to the higher 
Cormophytes, of knowing which of these views is the right 
one, and therefore I determined to make some observations 
which should if possible settle the matter one way or another. 
I ought perhaps to state that when I began my observations 
I was distinctly biassed in favour of Haberlandt’s view. 
In beginning my observations there was one point which 
1 Haberlandt, G., Ueber die physiologische Funktion des Centralstranges im 
Laubmoosstammchen, in Berichte der deutschen botan. Gesellschaft, Bd. I. (1883), 
p. 268. 
2 Haberlandt, G., Beitrage zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Laubmoose, in 
Pringsheim’s Jahrbiicher fur wissenschaftliche Botanik, Bd. XVII (1886). 
3 Oltmanns, F., Ueber die Wasserbewegung in der Moospflanzen und ihren 
Einfluss auf die W asservertheilung im Boden, in Cohn’s Beitrage zur Biologie der 
Pflanzen, Bd. IV, Hft. i. (1884). 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. I. No. II. November 1887.] 
